4 9 6 ANNALS OF THE KOTAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. Hamandl
200. CALAMDS AciDus Becc.
C. barbatus ( p a r t l y ) Bl. Runiphia, iii. 42,
Roiiang acidtm seu Rottang Assam Rumpb. Herb. Amb. y, 119, t. LVIII.
fig. 2 and E.
DESCEIPTION.—Not scandent. Siem the height of a man. Lcaf-sheaths densely
armed with slender spines. Female spadix simply decompound with many partia
inflorescences, which bear many spikelots; these 2-2'5 cm. long with two collateral
assm-gent series of 6 flowers each; invokcrum distinctly cupular. Fmit very closely
packed in the spikelets, ovate, distinctly conically beaked, 15-17 mm. long, 1 cm.
broad; scales numerous. Seed flattened, enveloped by an acid fleshy integument and
with a distinct clialazal fovea. ( Descript. from that of Eumph, and from his plate. )
HABITAT.—Bouton in Celebes.
OBSERVATIONS.—Blume had reduced fiuniph'S "Rottang Assam" to 0. barbattis-,
but it seems to me a quite distinct spccies because of its very short spikelets with
very closely packed fruits.
201. CALAMUS ( ZALACCELLA Becc. gen. nov. ) HARIIASDI Pierre
Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 216.
s.—Becc.
DESCRIPTION.—Apparently erect or stemless or tufted, of I-ather small dimensions.
Lcaf-sheatks not tubular, open on the ventral side and gradually passing into the
petiole, powerfully armed with confluent or shortly transversely seriate, horizontal,
laminar, subulate, 2-3 cm. long spines; petiole elongate, 8 mm. broad, deeply
channelled above, rounded beneath, where smooth along the middle, armed at the
margins with rather strong, straight, subulate, at the base callous, 3-4 cm. long
spines; racliis in its first portion armed beneath along the middle with long, solitary,
remote, horizontal, straight, broad-based spines, upwards acutely bifaced above and
naked beneath. Leaves rather large, non-ciiriferous, pari-pinnate; leaflets numerous,
equidistant, the lower ones closely alternate, the upper ones usually opposite and 2-2-5
cm. apart, papyraceous, linear-ensiform, slightly narrowed to and suddenly plicate
at the base, where rusty-furfuraceous beneath in the plicature, gradually acuminate
to a long and subulate bristly tip, light green even when dry, opaque, slightly
paler and subglaucescent beneath, where the nerves are slender and quite naked, with
3 acute rather closely spinulous cnstae above; transverse veinlets minute, inconspicuous ;
margins very minutely adpresscdly and remotely ppinulous from tbe middle upwards;
the largest leaflets, the lower ones, 30—40 cm. long, 10-15 mm. bi'oad: tiie upper
ones suddenly decreasing in length, leas acuminate and some oi them almost obtuse:
the two of the terminal puir the smallest, very narrow, free at tbe base. Male
spadix Female spadix apparently witli a rigid, erect, slender, straight, unarmed,
rusty-furfuraceous axis and with a few distant superposed inflorescences; primary
spathes elongate-cylindraceous, closely sheatliing, pap^'raceous, unarmed, prolonged at
the summit into a lanceolate ultimately flbrous lacerate limb; partial inflorescences
erect, sessile at or near the moutli of their own spathe, spiciform, about 10 cm.
long, cylindraceous, 2'5 cm. thick when covered with almost mature fmits ; the
axis of the inflorescence rather thick, woolly-furfuraceous, with the appendicular
C. buroensis] BECCABI. MONOGHAPH OP THE GENUS CALAMUS. 4 9 7
organs ( secondary spathes, spathels and involucres ) indistinct, being small, bracteiform
and hidden amongst the very crowded and closely packed fruits. Floivers sessile,
apparently in glomerules of three of which the central one female and fertile and
t h e side ones male ( or neuter ? ) . Fruiting perianth 4 mm. long, not pedicelliform,
broadly obconic; the calyx thinly coriaceous, split down almost to tho base ( sometimes
irregularly ) into 3 ovate, acute lobes ; the corolla one-third longer than the calyx, its
segments ovate-lanceolate, not very acute; staminal urceolum as long as (he calyx
almost truncate and crowncd by 6 short dentiform filaments. Fruit small, 1 cm. long
( immature ), very closoly packed round the axis and apparently disposed according
to 6 slightly spiral series, obovate-turbinate, narrowed towards the summit into
a comparatively stout conic beak; scales in 18 series, convex, not channelled
along the middle, chestnut-brown, shining, their margins ciliate or minutely fimbriate,
tip round. Seed ( immature ) pisiform ; albumen equable.
HABITAT.—Lower Cocbin-China at Thulet-Thay, {Harmand No. 1198 in Herb.
P i e r r e ) .
OBSEEVATIOKS.—A very remarkable palm, appnrently the type of a new Genus,
for which I propose the name of Zalaccella. It has many of the characters of a
Zalaeca, but is distinct by its leaves indistinguishable from those of a Calamus and
•with non-sigmoid leaflets and by the elongate spadix with tubular closely sheathing
spathes and cylindraceous superposed inflorescences, where the flowers are so closely
packed together that without an accurate examination on appropriate specimens it is
difficult to recognize the relative position of the flowers and of their appendicular
organs. From Calamtis it differs also in the non-tubular secondary spathes and in
the flowers arranged in 6 series on a cyliudricous axis and not disposed in separate
spikelets, and periiaps also by the 3-riate flowers of which only that of the ccntre
fertile. I have seen of this palm only portion of the leaves and two partial
infloroscerces, apparently belonging to the same spadix, with not quite mature fruit.
PLATE 229.—Calamus (Zalaccella Becc.) Harmandi Pierre. Basal portion and
summit of a leaf ; portion of a spadix with immature fruit.—From Harmand's-
No. 1198 in Herb. Becc.
Doubtful, imperfectly known or unrecognised species.'
1. CALAMUS AMAEUS Lour. FL. Cochinch. i, 210 ( e d i t . 1 ) ; Roem. et Schult.
Syst. Veg. vii, 2, 1332; Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. iii. 213 (first edit. )•
and 34.'^; Kunth, Enum. Plant, iii, 213; Walp. Ann. iii, 492 and v
832; H. Wcndl. in Kerch. Les Palm., 235.
OBSEKVATIONS.—It seems to me very probable that C. amarus Lour,, from Oochin-
China, is identical with C. (enuis Roxb. (See observations under tliat species.)
2. CALAMUS BHEOENSIS Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, iii, 236; Walp. Ann. iii,
486 and v, 830; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii. 121 and De Palm. Arch.
Ind. 27 ( C. luruensis); Becc. in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 217.
ROT. BOT. GAUD. CALCUTTA VOL. X I.