4 8 0 AUNALS OF THE ROTAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. \C- COnirOStn'S
broadly triangular teeth; the corolla slightly longer than the calyx. Fruiting
perianth pedicelliform. Fruit ellipsoid, shortly couically beaked, 9-10 mm. long including
the perianth ; 5-6 mm. broad; scales iQ 15 series with a very obtuse and round
point, shining vernicose, very faintly channelled in their basal part, straw,
yellow with a vivid red-brown intro-marginal line, margin very narrowly scarious
erosely toothed. Seed ovoid, apparently ^deeply and coarsely pitted (not seen perfectly
mature).
HABITAT.—Tho Philippine Islands. In the prov. of Igbaras {Vidal No. |3956 in
Herb. Becc. and Kew).—Neguliang: Mariveles {Xoifir No. 1371, male specimen in Herb.
Kew). Benguet: Mansitgiaran {Loher No. 1370, fruit-spadix in Herb. Kew).—Monte
Santo Tomas, pror. Benguet, Luzon {Elmer No. 6238, Herb. Manila).
OBSEEVATIONS.— C. dimorphacanihus is closely related] [to C. siphonospaUms and C. microcarpv
s and differs from both in ' t h e leaflets with the mid-costa alone biistly above
and in the more ellipsoid fruit with very shining scales rounded at the apex, which
are also rather conspicuously bordered with a vivid reddish-brown band.
C. dimorphacanthug was originally described by me from Vidal's sterile specimens
distributed with No. 3956 and taken from very young plants ; my specimen has
the sheathed stem 7 - 8 mm. in diam, and the leaflets are 10 mm. long; in the specimen
at Kew the leaflets aro only 5 cm. in length. Another sterile specimen is
preserved in Martius's Herbarium at Bruxellcs and was collected by Haenke. The
leaf-rachis of these specimens bears some very long, very slender pale spines intermingled
with the shorter one. In full-grown plants the long spines are not so
numerous or are wanting, as they apparently give place to more robust spines. I have
chiefly described Lohers specimens iu the Kew Herbarium ; Elmer's ones are more
robust, and in these the leaves are terminated by a robust and strongly clawed
cirrus ; the leaflets are very rigid, 20-23 cm. long, 9-10 mm. broad, with rather
long rigid bristles on the mid-costa above, the cilia on the margins rigid, subspinescent,
rather approximate and spreading; the leaf-rachis armed with robust
digitate claws ; the fruit 10 mm. long (not quite mature). In Loher's specimen the
leaflets are 17 cm. long and 7 mm. broad at most, and the fruit also iicmaturo, 9
mm. in length.
PLATE 219. Calamus dimorphacanthus Becc. The summit of a plant from Loher's
No. 1371 in Herb. Kew; fruit-spadix and male spadix iu flower, from Loher'a
No. 1370 in Herb. Kew.
188. CALAMUS CONIBOSTBIS Becc. in Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind, vi, 461 and in Rec.
Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 215.
DESCBIPTION.—Scandent, of modei-ate size, 6-7 m. high. Slieathed stem 3-5-3 cm.
in diam. LeaJ-sheaths (sometimes flagelliferous ?) obliquely truncate at the mouth,
o-ibbous above, very powerfully armed with very unequal, spreading or somewhat
deflexed, scattered, light-coloured, polished, laminar, long acuminate spines, of
•which soma are 2-5 cm. in length and 2-5 mm. broad at the base, and others much
smaller, irregularly intermingled with the larger ones; those near the mouth much
narrower and longer ¡.up to 10-15 cm. in length) acicular, straight, erect, recalling
C. conirostris] BECCAEI. MONOGBAPII OP THE GENUS CALAMUS. 481
those of Daemonorops Systriz. Leaves large, l ' 8 - 3 ' 5 m. long (King'? collector), terminating
ill a short, robust, strongly and iwegularly clawed cirrus, which is furni'íhed to
its extreme sunmiit with diminutive leaflets ; petiole rather long, rounded and naked
beneath, channelJed above, armed at the sides with short straight and often divergent
spines; rachis in its first portion somewhat flattened, slightly convex and clawed at
the sides beneath, channelled at the sides abovo where arc inserted the leaflets, in
its upper part acutely bifaced and smooth above and irregularly armed beneath with
scattered or more or less aggregate and towards the summit ternate black-tipped
claws; leaflets numerous, equidistant, about 3 cm. apart on each side, lincar-ensiform,
somewhat narrowed towards the base, very gradually acuminatc at the summit into
a long caudate bristly apex, thinly papyraceous, green on both surfaces, slightly
paler beneath, with 3 costac which are very distinct, acute and bristly in the upper
surface, and indistinct underneath where only that of the centro is bristly towards
the sumiait; transverse veinlets indistinct; margins remotely, very finely and
adpressedly spinulous; the lower margin in the upper surface often bordered with
a very narrow shining band; the largest leaflets, those u little above the base,
45 cm. long. 25-28 mm. broad; the upper ones gradually smaller and moro distant;
those of the cirrus abortive, 2-3 cm. long and a few mm. broad. Spadices of both
sexes very similar in size, number and fonn of the spathes ; with a short robust flattened
acutely two-edged and strongly prickly peduncular part bearing very few approximate
partial inflorescences and terminating in a long slender sparsely and irregularly
clawed flagellum, which in its lower part is rather loosely sheathed by 2-3 strongly
prickly spatlies; primary spathos coriaceous, tubular and closely sheathing at the
base, open on the ventral side and slightly ventrioose, with a narrowly elongate subauriculiform
limb upwards; this strongly armed with scattered, slender, straightspreading,
acicular spines; the lowest or first spathe larger than the upper ones, flattened,
aciitely two-edged and unarmed at the base, the edges gradually transformed upwards
into two acute keels on the back of the blade; partial inflorescences very few, often
only one, especially in the female spadix, and 2-3 at most in the male spadix, erect,
densely panicled-thyrsoid, somewhat unilateral, often with the lower spikelcts branched
in the male spadix, always simple iu the female one ; the lowest inflorescence, the
largest, 15-18 cm. long with many very approximate gradually decreasing spikelets
on each side and finally with solitary bifarious flowers at its summit ; the upper ooes
smaller; secondary spathes short, aoguiar by mutual pressure, infuiidibuliform, truncate
at the mouth, prolonged at one side into a triangular very acute or acuminate point.
Male spikelets ascendent, scorpioid; the largest, the lower ones (\vl;en simple) 20-25 mm.
long with 2 slightly convergent series of li—15 flowers each; spatfaels bracteiform,
very approximate, very broad, concave, striately veined, ciliate, the point triangular,
acute, longer than • the involucre, this irregularly cupular, rather deep, usually
transversely elongate or almost boat-shaped aud acute at both sides. Male flowers very
crowded, with the bnee immersed in the involucre and subtended by the point
of its spathe, 5-6 mm. long, ovoid, obsoletely trigonous; the calyx campanulate,
finely striately veined, divided midway down into 3 broad rather obtuse triangular
lobes; the corolla polished outside, a third longer than the calyx. Female spikelets
ascendent, scorpioid, short and thick, inserted just at the mouth of their own spathe;
the lower ones, the largest, 20-25 mm. long with two convergent series of 8-10
ANN, ROY. BOT. GARD. CALCUTTA, VOL. X I ,