T
J 38 AITNALS OP THE EOYAl BOTANIC GAJIDEN, CAlCTrTTA. [C, ThlVWiesH
inyolucropliorum short, oupular, truncate, esserted irom its owa spathel and attached
at the base of the one above, acutely two-keeled on the side nest to the axis;
mvolncte regularly cnpular, rather deep, scarcely longer than the involucrophorum,
truncate, entire or faintly emarginato on the side of the neuter flower, of which the
areola is distinctly lunate, rather concave and sharply bordered. rma!e ilomn ovate
and 7-8 mm. long ; the calyx with 3 ovate acute teeth; the corolla divided almost
to t!io base into throe lanceolate acute segments slightly longer than the calyx; the
stamons with filaments united by their bases and forming a [short ring, triangular
and subulate in the free portion. FruUmg ferimth not pedicelliform; its calyx
somewhat hardened and callous at the base, but almost entirely split into three
pieces. FruU ellipsoid-obovoiH, subtnrbinate and sbghtly tapering towards the base,
suddenly contracted at the apex into a stout and rather long conical boak, 32-35
mm. long, 12-15 mm. in diameter; scales in 12 longitudinal series, the largest 7
mm. long and not quite so much in breadth, convex, broadly channelled along the
middle, yellowish-brown or yellowish-reddish with a dark marginal line and very
finely eroscly ciliated, not fringed, margins. Seed (when freed from the dry, certainly
once fleshy, coat) ovoid, very slightly compressed, 15 mm. long, 10 mm. wide, 7
mm. thick, with obtuse apex and flat base, uneven or indistinctly pitted on the hack,
convex on' the raphal side and with a very deep narrow circular chalazal fovea above
the centre; albumen equable ; embryo perfectly basal.
HABITAT. Ceylon: in the Hantani district of the Central Provinces at an eleva.
tion of 3,000 to 3,000 feet {TiwaiUi C. P. No. 287.3).
OBSERVATIONS.—This is quite distinct from 0. longisdus by the different shape of
t h e fruit scales. It seems more nearly related to C. arhoremm than to C. longisdm,
but this is an erect species with leaflets white beneath, and with the axial portions
of the spadix not clawed. From C. eredus and allied species it is separated by its
seed with equable albumen.
The spadix of the Ceylon plant (No. 2873 in the St. Petersburg Herbarium)
is accompanied with a portion of a loaf which seems a radical one (or that of a
youn" plant) with the upper part of the petiole; this is terete and is armed, as in
t h e first portion of the raohis beneath, with three-fourlhs whorls of numerous slender
long straight spines; the petiole and rachis are covered with removable grey scurf.
PLATE 10.—Calamus Thwaitesii Beec. Lower portion of a male partial inflorescence,
with flowers not fully developed and lower portion of a (radical?) leaf,
from C. P. No. 2871! in St. Petersburg Herbarium.
11 —Calamus Thwaitesii Bccc. A partial inflorescence with not quite ripe
f r u i t a n d ' a portion of a leaf from near its base (seen from the upper surface), from
c p' No. 2873 in Herb, de Cand.; a spikolet with full-grown f r u i t ; detached
f r u i t s , ' one'seed entire and another in longitudinal section from C. P. No. 2873 in
St. Petersburg Herbarium.
CALAMUS THWAITESII Becc. var. CASAKAKDS Becc.
DBSCEIPTIOS.—-C™» as in type, but sHghtly paler beneath than above; in the
small portion seen by me the leaf-rachis is armod beneath with small .straight temate
C. rudentum'] BECCAEI. MOXOGEvlPH OF THE GENUS CALAMUg. 139
deflexed black spines. Male spadix elongate flagelliform ; its lower partial inflorescences
elongate (in one specimen 70 cm. long with 11-12 spikelets on each side)
and terminating in a small, unarmed, inconspicuous, tail-like appendix; secondary spathes
tubular, narrow and closely sheathing at the base, somewhat enlarged above where
usually split on the ventral side, and embracing with their expanded, exsuccous,
triangular apices the base of their respective spikelets ; spikelets large, the lower ones
10-12 cm. long, 1 cm. broad, with very numerous and very approximate flatly
bifarious flowers (as many as 40 on each side) ; upper primary inflorescences with
fewer and sometimes much ahorter spikelets, and these often with a scorpioid tendency ;
epathels very shortly and broadly asymmetrically infundibuliform. Male flowers (fullgrown)
narrowly oblong, 8-10 mm. long, 3 mm. broad, obsoletely trigonous, conically
narrowed to the summit and sometimes slightly curved ; the calyx tubular-campanulate,
shortly and broadly 3-toothed; the corolla (during anthesis) almost three times as long
as the calyx. Female spadix as in the Ceylon plant; spathes tubular-infundibuliform,
truncate and entire at the mouth, very slightly prolonged at one side into a broadly
triangular point. Fruii more or less obovoid, turbinate, very suddenly beaked, 20-25
mm. long (including the beak and the perianth), 15 mm. thick. Seed suborblcular,
12 mm. long, 11 mm. broad, somewhat flattened or lenticular, 6 mm. thick with a
rather acute margin all round.
near seashore, {Talbot
{Talboi No. 2856, in
HABITAT.—Southern India; Cañara district, at
No. 2 8 5 4 ^ ) ; Ainshi Ghat, {Talhot No. 2855), and
Herb. Kew).
OBSEBVATIONS.—The male spadix of this variety at first sight looks very difíerent
from that of the Ceylon plant, on account of its spikelets which are shorter and at
tho same tim'e with more numerous and more approximate flowers. The fruit however
is externally exactly similar to that of the Ceylon plant, as already stated by
Sir J. Hooker {Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 441), but the seed is more flattened, almost lenticular
and with a rather sharp edge all round. The portions of leaves which accompany
Talbot's specimens of the spadix have grouped leaflets and the rachis armed beneath
not with claws but with small, slender, ternate, deflexed, straight, black spines, probably
because the said portions belong to radical leaves or to those of the lower part of
tbe plant. -The specimen of a male spadix with curved male flowers, ^ inch long, that
Sir J. Hooker mentions uuder C. j^settdo-ÜJm's (1. c., 445), and that I have seen,
belongs to the var. ca/iaranus of C. Tiwaitosii.
PLATE 12. Calamus Thwaitesii Beca. VAE. canaranus Becc. Partial male inflorescence
and portion of a leaf (under surface) from Marmagoa (Talbot No. 2854 in
Herb. Kew); spikelet with mature fruit and seed in lonigtudinal section through the
embryo, from Ainshi Ghat, N. Kanara, (Talbot No. 2855 in Herb. Kew).
7. CALAMUS EDDENTUM Lour. Fl. Cochinchin. 1st edit, i, 209, and 2nd edit.,
260 (excl. Humph, syn.) ; Willd. Spec, ii, 203 ; Lam. Encycl. vii, 304 ;
Rees Cycl. No. 2 ; Roem. & Schult. Syst. vii, 1327 ; Martius Hist. Nat.
Fiilm. iii, 1st edit., 211 (excl. all syn.) and 340; Walp. Ann. iii, 49,
and V, 831 ; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii, 139; H. Wendl. in Kerch. Palm.
23T Becc. in Reo. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 199.
AKM. HOY. BOT. Q-ABD. CALCUTTA "VOL. X I .