Î32 AKNALS OP THE EOYAL BOTANIC GAIÎDE:Î, CALCUTTA. [C, artoreSCBiiS
tniDCatc, flat, two-keeled, einargmate and bidcntate on the »¡do neit to the axis.
Male Jhwcn mserted at an angle of 15°, elongate, large, 10 mm. long and 2-Ó-3 mm.
thick, often slightly outwardly cm-Ted ; calyx oTato, divided down to about the middle
i n t o '3 scmi-oyate acute lobes, not striate ; corolla two and a half to three times as
long as the calyx, diTided into 3 broadly linear, or narrowly lanceolate acute
serments, entire where it is enclosed in the calyx; stamens united to the corolla in its
undmded basal portion; ilamonts linear, subulate, inflected at the apex in the bud;
anthers broadly linear attached by the middle, Torsatile, their cells parallel, shortly
discrete at the base ; rudimentary pistil long, consisting of three angular, elongated, acute
bodies united to the middle. I'emaU ¡¡xidix with partial inflorescences 40 cm.
long fat least the one seen, wl.ich perhaps is not entire), with 5 spikelets on each
side secondary spathes as in the male spadix, unarmed, tubular, enlarged and
somewhat inflated aboTe, withered and lacerated upwards and transversely ioned ;
spitelets flexnose, spreading or recurved, 15-18 cm. long with 18-20 distichous
flowOTS on each side; spathels infundibulifotm, truncate, produced on one side into
a short ultimately decayed point; involucrophorum obliquely cnpniar, nearly entirely
included in its own spathel at the base of the one above, flat, 2-keel.d and
2-to„thcd on the side next to the axis; involucre hardly longer than the Involucroohornm
cupular truncate, entire or superficially S-tootbed; areola of the neuter flower
àopresséd-lunate, sharply defined. F.„ak Jlmer. about 7 mm. long. Fruitiv p M
explánate, the calyx split into 3 broadly ovate acute parts, not or hardly callous at
the base- the corolla with the segments narrower but a little longer than the lobes
of the calyx- the stamens with filaments united as usual by their b«so«, triangular
in the free portion and a little shorter than the calyx, f ndt 20-21 mm, long, 14-1Ô
mm. broad, obovoid oblong, suddenly and .toutly beaked; scales in 12 longitudinal
series rather broader than long, deeply channelled along the middle, dn-ty yellowish
or reddish-brown, with a very narrow, darker intramai-ginal line and finely cihately
f r i n - e d margins, especially near the rather obtuse tip. &ed, when freed from the
internment, 12 mm. long, 6 mm. thick, with a Tci-y nneven, almost facetted surface
on the rapha! side and with a deep central chalaaal fovea; albumen bony, equable;
embryo exactly basilar.
HABI-rsT.-Bui-ma: in marshy places in Pegu. At B.ssein, Myaungmya Division
at Kyetsha Walkema Subdivision and . t Rangoon (1. II. B„rhll). Kur. writes tost
it is "frequent in marshy beds of choungs, in the moister and evergreen tropical
forests of Pegu, on the sandstone," and that it is called " Thanoung" by the Ba.-maas
Gamble (1. c.) gives the Burmese names o! " D . n o u n g " and "Kyenbankyen » and
Burkill those of "Damon" and " Danoung Thain."
OBSERVATIONS.—Griffith who had described this species diffusedly from male plants
cultivated in the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, says that it is a very elegant palm, in
some cases stoloniferous, forming at the base, apparently from oSsots, very thick leafy
tnfls, from which arise elegant stems fifteen or twenty feet high, two and a half inches
in diameter" and that it is " a very handsome and well-marked species distinguished
by its erect stems, dark brown almost black spines and the leaves which are white
nnderneath," and I may add by the want of claws or short hooked spin 1 the
C. dongnaiensis] b e c c a e i . xouoffBAPH of t h e a s i r u s cai^amus. 133
spadix and on the leaf-rachis, where only black straight flat or needle-like spines aro
to be found. Very few Calami have tho leaflets so decidely -white underneath as thia.
A very large and complete specimen from a plant cultivated at Buitenzorg and
sent to n3c by Dr. Treub has a leaf 5 m. long, including the petiole, which is
1-5 in. in length and is as thick as a man's wiist; tho largest leaflets are more
than 1 m. long; the male spadix measures 5 m. and terminates in a rather long
tail-like, aculeate (not clawed) appendix. Tho partial inflorescences are veiy largo and
tho lower ones decompound.
PLATB 7.—Calamus arbore
inflorescence. From the abo^
ens Grif. Portion of a leaf and apex of a male partía
mentioned plant cultivated at Buitenzorg.
Calam lENSis Pierre Mss. ex Becc. in Ree. Bot. Surv. Ind.
Desckiption.—Tufted and
not cirriferous; petiole (the <
very obscuroly trigonous,
spines, which are seated
.early stemless, 1-3 ni. high (Pierre). Leaves very large,
le seen, probably from a radical leaf) nearly terete or
id with straight, rathcc short and slightly deflexed
broad base; rachis (of the upper portion of the loaf)
trigonous, bifaccd above, flattish beneath, where marked with deep impressions left by
the pressure of the spines during prefoliation, and where it is rather densely armed
•with long (4-5 cm.), flat, clastic, black-tipped spines, which are paler and yellowish
at the base; leaflets ioequidistant, enaiform, very gradually acuminate, green and subshining
on both surfaces with their mid-rib furnished above near the apex with few
distant spinules and beneath, especially from the middle upwards, with some stiS spadiceous
bristles (10-15 mm. long); secondary nerves slender, only one on each sido of
the mid-rib furnished wilh a few spinules on the upper surface and occasionally
also on the lower one; transverso veinlets very many, rather distinct and interrupted;
the largest leaflets seen are 50-60 cm. long, 2-5-3 cm. broad; the upper shorter; the
two of the terminal pair the smallest and united at the base. Male spadix simply
decompound, very long, the one seen 2-5 m. long, thinly covored with a very easily
removable dark scurf and prolonged into a long, caudate, sterile, sheathed not clawed
appendix, but armed with needle-like, black, straight aud slender spines or totally unarmed :
the peduncular portion of the spadix is rather long, flattened and unarmed
throughout ; lowest primary spathe elongate, flattened and two-edged, unarmed ; the
upper spathes tubular, cylindraceous at the base, enlarged above into a somewhat
inflated, lanceolate, much lacerated or longitudinally split and withered limb, which is
of a greenish-straw colour and is covered with a thin, deciduous, brown scurf and is
more or less distinctly marked with few transverse zones or shghtly raised ridges;
the attenuated and lower portion of the spathes is armed with straight, flat, subulate,
unequal spines, of which some are 2 cm. long and arise solitary or fascicled from a
pale tubercle ; partial inflorescences 5-6, the lowest, tho largest, about 40 cm.
long, with few (4) remote spikelets on each side; secondary spathes elongate-infundibuliform
with an inflated sub-auricled limb, which is speedily withered and lacerated,
zoned as in the primary ones ; spikelets not pedicellate, inserted near the
mouth of their respective spathes, large, 10-15 cm. long, with up to 20 flowers on each
side, flexuose, flattened, scaly-furfuraceous ; spathels short, broadly and asymmetrically
infundibuliform, truncate, entire, not ciliate at the margin, extended on one