28 INTHODT/CTOET ESSAY.
I n all the species of Calamus the perianth formed by the calyx and corolla is
persistent till the fruit reaches maturity, and usually it is unaltered or at most
slightly hardened.
The f r u i t i n g perianth affords a good diagnostic character, as in some species the
calyx and corolla are split to the base and their segments remain spread under the
f r u i t where they form a kind of six-rayed star. In many other species the tube of
t h e calyx is more or less cylindric, hardens a little after the fertilisation of the
ovary, becomes callous and even sometimes slightly swollen at the base and as a
-whole gives rise to a kind of stalk or pedicel to the fruit.
Whether the fruiting perianth be explanate or pedicelliform, we may always,
owing to its different parts remaining unaltered, recognise from it the structure and
t h e size of the female flowers.
When the fruiting perianth is pedicelliform tlie fruit is usually provided at
its base with a small candide penetrating into the cavity of the perianth.
XTII.—The Fruit.
The fruit of Calamun does not essentially differ from that of the other
Lepiiocaryeaoe . I t has by Martius been termed loricate or mail-clad, on account of
i t s pericarp which, owing to its being composed of numerous, regularly arranged,
thin, resistent, retrorae scales, forms a kind of plated armour for the seed. This
structm-e is unique in the vegetable kingdom.
The fruit of Calamus is more or less globular, ovoid, ellipsoid, oblong, conicalovoid
or even slightly turbinate; it is always comparatively small, and varies from
4 - 5 mm. in length in C. ¡nicrosphaerhn, C. siphonospathus, C. microcarpus, etc.,
to 4 cm in C. ereoius. Among species that possess a large fruit may be mentioned
C. Flagellum, C. Masianus, 0. mmhariensis, C. Manan, C. simplex,
C. ornatus, etc.
The fruit of Calamus remains the same in the dry as in the fresh condition, but
on account of the scaly nature of the pericarp it varies somewhat in size according
t o its degree of maturity, inasmuch in the fresh fruit the seed is often
enveloped in a fleshy integument, which when the seed is mature exerts a degree of
presaui-e against the pericarp that causes an expansion of this, which is comparable
to the expansion of the skin of a snake when its body is distended with food.
And, in reality, the hard scales of the pericarp in a Calamus fruit are joined
together by an elastic and extensible tissue exactly as the scales of the skin of
a snake are.
The scales of the fruit of Calamus afford good diagnostic characters by their
shape, their colour, the peculiarities of their surface and margin, their number and
their disposition, Martius has discussed the phyllotaxis of the scales of the fruit of
Calamus at great length, and I have nothing to add to his very complete study.
I have only to say that in my descriptions I have only given a certain amount
•of weight to the characters drawn from the number of the longitudinal series or
vertical rows, termed " orthostichies, " according to , which they are apparently
arranged round the fruit. The smallest number of these vertical rows observed by
usually
THE SEED. 29
e is 32 in G. Kunneanus, C. nematospadiz, C. diaiiatus, and G. microcarpus, while
l a i s e s t is' 24-27 in C. casianeus. The number of the series or rows is
multiple of 3, but in some fruits one of the series may at times be
uissing so that the rule does not always hold good. The number of
¿rthostichies is as a rule rather constant, and the variation that occurs in each
. L c i e s is confined to narrow limits. The greatest difference m the number of
oHhostichies observed by me has been in (7. fasciculatus, in some varieties of which
I ' b a v e counted 20, in others 14. As has been already said, the number varies
f r om 24 to 27 in 0. casfaneus.
The morphological nature of the fruit-scales of the Calami, as of other
Lepidocarye<e, is not thoroughly known. A. Braun has considered these scales to be
l e a f v structures; they appear to me however to be rather hypertrophic or
hyperplastic products or outgrowths of the epidermal tissue, analogous to the
s^nules, bristles, hairs and such like growths so frequent on the surface of the
leaf-sheaths, the spathes and even the leaves of every Calamus. Martius considers
(Hist. Nat.' Palm. vol. I l l , p. cxlix) their very regular and surprising phyllotaxis
to be against this hypothesis.
According to my view the scales of Lepidocaryew correspond to the spiculas
which grow on the fruits of some Cocoineae, as on those of some species of
Asirocarijum and Bactris. In connection with this opinion it must be called to
mind that the scaly coating or spinosity of the fi-uit in Palms always occurs in
plants which are abundantly furnished with spines in other parts of the plant, as
if its epidermal tissue were endowed with the faculty, of producing spinous
hyperplasia on the homologues of the leaves, as the three carpels composing the
ovary of a Calamus morphologically are.
My view then is that the scales of Lepidocanjea: are no more than the
homologues of the spinules, hairs or bristles that are to be observed on the nerves
of the leaves in almost every species of Calamus.
The hyperplastic epidermal origin of the scales of Lepidocaryece is almost
evident in the fruit of Myrialepls Scortechinii, where the scales are excessively
minute and numerous and are reversed in the fmit, but are falcate, ascending, and
inserted normally on the surface of the young ovary, as is seen when a longitudinial
section of the ovary is made.
X V I I I . The Seed.
Under the scaly peiranth there is usually a solitary seed ; this, in the fresh
state, is enveloped by its proper integument which is sometimes thin and dry, but is
not infrequently, considerably developed, often fleshy, mucilaginous or acid, and in
this case is not unpleasant to the taste ; or is even loaded with tannic substances
and astringent. In the dry fruit the integument is usually thin and adherent to the
seed and more or less crustaceous, and often brittle when it originally was fleshy.
T h e integument of C. aquatilis is of a very special structure because, besides t h e fleshy
tissue of which it is' composed and which after maturity is in time absorbed, it
contains numerous persistent short fibres attached normally to the testa of the seed
and entirely clothing its surface with a velvety-pubescent covering.