5 0 ANNALS OF THE EOYAL BOTANIC GABDEN. CALCUTTA. [¿7. ARUETISIS.
DAEMONOEOPS MELANOCHAETES var. DEPKESSE-GLOBOSUS Teijsm. et Bina. Cat, Hort.
Bogor. (1866), 74; Becc. in Ree. Bot. Sui-v. Ind. ii, 219.
I have not eeeu specimens of tbis. variety.
HABITAT.—Java or Sumatra ?
4. . DAEMONOROPS AEUENSIS Becc.
DESCRIPTION.—Scandent. She-aihed stem 2-5 cm. in diameter. Uaf-sheaths of the
upper part of the plant gibbous above, covered with an almost black, removable,
crustaceous scurf, and armerf with laminar, often seriate, blackish spines. Leaves
elongate; petiole 15 cm. long, flattish, and with the central part smooth above, its
margins prickly, convex beneath, where armed with rather numerous, unequal,
straight spines; on the upper surface the rachis is, at first, spinulous at the sides
and convex-bifacial upwards, with the salient angle acute, smooth or very remotely
spinulous; underneath clawed as in allied species. Leaflets very numerous, equidistant,
rather approximate, papyraceous, linear-ensiforui, from about 5-6 cm, above
their base gradually acuminate to a finely subulate tip; the intermediate ones about
"30 cm. long and 15 mm. broad; the mid-oosta and one slender costula on each side of it
furnished on the upper surface with blackish bristles; ou tlie lower the mid-costa alone
sparingly, minutely and interruptedly bristly from the middle upwards, margins closely and
appressedly spinulous. Male $padix . . . " . Female spadiz in fruit erect, '¿0—25 cm.
long without the spathes; outer spathes (seen only in a decayed condition) armed
with blackish, filiform spiculae; the pedicellar part of the spadix short and spinulous;
involucrophorum pedicelliform, angular, distinctly callous at its axilla; involucre very
shallowly cupular ; areola of t h e neuter flower somewhat depressed, with its upper margin
strongly swollen. Fruiting perianth explanate, with a very slightly callous base.
Fruit spherical, very shortly conically beaked, 16-18 mm. in diameter, sometimes very
slightly depressed; scales in 18 aeries, rather glossy, not very deeply channelled
along the centre, reddish-brovm, with a darker, rather broad marginant line, tip
slightly prolonged, margins erosely toothed. Seed sub-globular, broader than long, in
one specimen U mm. in one transvers'i diameter, 10-5 mm, in the other, 12 mm.
high, almost equally biconvex and not distinctly ventricose on the raphal side.
HABITAT.—Collected first by S. N. Moseley in tlie Aru Islands during the
voyage of t h e C h a l l e n g e r " in 187-4 (Herb, Kew.), and afterwards by Warburg
in the same Islands (Herb. Berol.).
OBSERVATIONS,—It difiers very little from D. melanonhaetes, of whicli at fiist I
' h a d considered it a variety, but the seed is somewhat depressed, almost equally
.biconvex and not disdnctly gibbous on one side; moreover the fruit is shghtly
smaller and more distinctly beaked, and the leaf-sheaths are armed with more
distinctly seriate spines than in D. melanochaetes. The seed strongly gibbous on the
raphal side is the best character for distinguishing O. inelanochaetes from several
allied forms, a character which seems constant in all ita varieties. On this
account I have thought it wise not to amalgamate with D. melanochaetes a form Laving an
almost equally biconvex seed. ,
D. palembanhus.'\ BECCAEI. THE SPECIES OP. DAEMONOEOPS. 51
PLATE 5.—Daemonorops aruensis Becc.
Portion of the stem with a spadix in fruit and the seed in the lower part
of the plate from a specimen collected in the Aru Islands by Moseley
i,Herb. Kew.-; spadix with two detached fruits and portion of leaf from
a specimen collected by Warbvrg also in the Aru Islands (Herb. Bevol.).
5. DAEMOKOEOPS PALEMBANICUS Bl. l i u m p b i a , iii, 20 pi. 163B, fig. B ; Miq.
Fl. Ind. Bat. iii, 102, and Prodr. Fl. Sum. 256, and in Journ. de Bot
N6erl., i, 21; Teijsm. and liinii. Cat. Hort. Bog. 74; Becc. in Hec.
Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 219.
Calamus palemhanicus Miq. De Palm. Arc. Ind 29; H. Wendl, in
Kerch. Palm. 237.
Palmijunciis Palimbanicus liumph. Herb. Amb. v, 107 ?
DESCRIPTION —Rather robust. Leaf-sheaths covered with an almost black, removable,
crustaceous scurf and densely armed with unequal more or less broadly laminar and
often seriate black spines. Leaves exactly like those of C. melanochaetes, but sometimes
bristly on 5 nerves above. Spadices 40-60 cm. long, including the beak which is about
as long as the body or shorter, and spinous only at its base; otherwise the spadices
are cxactly like those of C. melanochaetes except that the outer spathe ie densely
armed with many, more or less broadly laminar, black spines, which are usually
confluent by their bases and more or less partially or interruptedly transversely
seriate; some of these spines are 3-4 mm. broad at their bases and 4-5 cm. long,
intermingled with smaller ones ; those of the basal part of the body are reversed,
those of the middle horizontal, the upper ones, and especially those of the base
of the beak, ascendent and often longer than the others; the second and third spathe
also spinous, but in a far less degree. Fruit spherical, 16-18 mm. in diameter;
scales slightly channelled along the middle, with a dark marginal Hoe and a
very slightly produced obtuse tip. Seed irregularly globular, strongly ventricose on
the raphal side.
HABITAT.—Sumatra, in the province of Palembang.
OBSERVATIONS.—Probably D. pilembanicus must be considered as a variety of
D. melanochaetes, of which it possesses all the characteristics except that the spines
clothing the outer spathe are a good deal broader and more distinctly laminar than
in the typical forms of D. melanochaetes from Java, and also are more or less
coalescent by their bases and interruptedly seriate.
Of the type specimen of D. palemhanicus I have seen a small portion of
a leaf and portions of a spadix with male flowers. The leaflets in this specimen
are exactly like those of D. melanochaetes, are 43 cm. long, 18 mm. broad, with
long bristles on 3 nerves above, and sparsely bristly only near the apex beneath;
the margins are appressedly bristly-spinulous up to the apex. The spikelets of
the male spadix are densely covered on their axial part with a rusty-furfuraceous
pulverulent scurf, which, if observed with a good lens, appears adherent to many,
ANN. ROV. BOT. QAKD. ; OALCDTTA, VOL. X I I.