82 ANNALS OP THE EOTAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [_D. singa/anus.
mm. long pedicel; outer spafclio cymbifovm, rather acutely two-keoled, almost equally
narrowing towards both cuds, the beak being only 4 cm. in length (in one
epecimen), armed with narrowly laminar, rather short (ó-lO ram.), feeble, deflexed,
often seriate spines; inner spathes (only four) unarmed. Fruiii-g spwih nodding ;
its main axis slender, supporting very few partial inflorescences (four in one
specimen) that are 6-7 cm. long with few (5-6; short, loose, few-flowered
spikelets; spathels bracteiform, amplectent, produced at one side into a
triangular acute or acuminate point; involucrophorum sub-obconic, thick and short,
callous at its axilla, expanded at its apex into an asymmetrically subcupular and
unilaterally acute limb ; involucre cupular, truncate, entire, almost entirely
immersed in the involucrophorum ; areola of the neuter flower depressed, with its
upper margin conspicuously swollen. Fruiting perianik not quite explauate, the calyx
forming a very short but distinct pedicel. Fruié globular, 3 cm. in diameter
slightly aanowing towards the base or sub turbinate, with a round or slightly
depressed vertex, and surmounted by a very short conic black beak; scales i:i 15-16
longitudinal series, uniformly tawny-bcown, with, a sharp darker marginal line, very
deeply channelled along the centre, tip slightly produced, o b t u s e . ' g l o b u l ar
1 4 - 1 6 mm. in diameter, sometimes slightly depressed, not very strongly ruiuiiiate'
not ventiicose on the raphal side; embryo basal, very near tiie hilum. ' '
HABITAT.—The Malayan Peninsula. Collected by Father ScorUchini in the
district of Perak (Herb. Beccari).
I flower, the other in
related to D. Sepal,
the outer spathe armed
and deeply channelled
OBSERVATIONS.—Of this I have seen two
fruit, and tlie apex of a cirriferous leaf. It is
but it differs in the more slender and nodding spad
with short spines, in the round fruit with fewer
scales, and in the globular, slightly depressed seed.
PLATE 27.—Daemonorops Scorteehinii Becc. The type specimen iu Herb
2 i . DAEMONOEOPS SINGALANDS Becc. in Rec. Bot. Surv. Iiid. ii 219.
DESCRIPTION,—Scandent and of moderate siae. Slicathed stem 2-5 cm. in diameter.
Leaf-sheaths slightly gibbous above,' covered with a blackish ci-ustaceoua seurf
densely armed, except on a bare area in thoii- upper part on each side at the basé
of the petiole, with approximate, irregular, deflexed rows of unequal, broadly laminar
or even acicular, short, or as much as 3 cm. long, blackish or schistaceous confluent
spines ; the mouth obliquely truncate and armed with long erect spines on its antisous
aspect. Leaves of the upper part of the plant 1-2 m. long iu the pinniferous
part ( i n one specimen), terminating in a rather slender cirrus which is 60 cm. Ion«--
petiole short (10 cm. long), plano-convex at the base, flattened and sub-biconvex
higher up, not prickly on its upper surface, its margins not very acute and armed
with straight solitary spines ; the rachis armed beneath with at first solitary, tlien
3 - 5 nate, and on the oii-rus half-whorled, very sharp claws; the upper surface is smooth
throughout with the exception of a few struggling spinules, and is at first convex with
broad sides for the insertion of the leaflets, but from the middle upwards the convexity
i s transformed into an acute, salient angle, with flat side faces. ' "
D. s'lngalanus.'] BECCAEI. THE SPECIES OF DAEMONOROPS. 83
(about 60 on each side), equidistant, 15—20 mm. apart, green and rather dull,
slightly paler beneath, thinly papyraceous but rather firm in texture, liaear-lanccolate,
tlie largest those a little above the base, 2 6 - 2 7 cm. long, 12-16 mm. wide,
broadest about the middle and thence gradually narrowing to an acute base and to a
subulate and bristly tip, rather distinctly 3-costulate on the upper surface, with the
raid-costa very sharp and a distinct secondary iierve on each side of it, all three
but especially the side ones carrying very slender rather long bristles on the lower
surface; the mid-oosta above very finely and closely bristly-spinulous ; the margins
closely finely and spreadingly ciliate. Spadinea distinctly supra-axillary, codding,
supported by a very slender, flattened, prickly pedicellar part. Male spadiz elongatefusiform
before flowering, very gradually narrowing into a slender beak one-third
the length of the body, the whole length of the spadix being 35 cm. without the
peduncular part; the latter 4 cm. long, 4 mm. wide; outer spathe cymbiform-fusiform,
very gradually narrowing to the base where, more than upwards, rather acutely
two-keeled, sparingly armed between the keels with scattered, very slender, long,
acicular spines, naked on the very broad margins and almost smooth on tho upper
part and on the entire beak; the other spathes quite unarmed; the axial parts of the
spadix almost gJabrous, even when still enveloped by the spathes ; the intei-node
between the first and seiiond spathe slender, about 2 cm. long, 4 mm. broad,
slightly flattened, with rather acute edges ; partial inflorescences 4 - 5 , rather short,
ovate, 5-6 cm. long, composed of about 12 branchlets, each of these
carrying 4-5 spikelets on each side; the lowest spikelets are the largest,
12-15 mm. long with 4-5 flowers on each side, their axis slightly zig-zng sinuous
with very short and almost glabrous spaces between the flowers; spathels
bracteiform, amplectent, produced externally into a broad limb subtRnding the involucre:
the latter cupular, truncate, entire with two very minute teeih on the posticous side.
MtXe flowers oblong or ovate-oblong, obsoletely trigonous, about 4 mm. iu length, slightly
narrowing towards an obtuse apex ; the calyx campanulate, superficially 3-dentate ; the
corolla about twice as long as the calyx. Fruiting spadix nodding or recurved, 40 cm.
long including 15 cm. of the peduncular part (in 2 specimens) which consists of a
true prickly pedicel 8 cm. long, 6 mm. thick, and of the elongate and equally
slender and flattened internodes, interposed between the insertion of the two outermost
spathes; partial inflorescences five, usually accompanied by their persistent
papyraceous spaihes, 7-9 cm. long, erect, strict, shortly stalked, not callous at their
insertion and composed of 8-10 spikelets; the main axis sinuous and slender; the
largest spikelets, the lowest of each partial inflorescences, 4 em. long, with 4 -6
flowers on eacb side; spathels bracteiform, extended at one side inio a very broadly
triangular acute limb; involucrophorum short and thick, slightly exceeding its
spathel, not or indistinctly callous at its axilla, expanded at its apex into an
obliquely subcupular limb, which with one of its sides subtends the neuter flower
and with the point of the other exceeds the margin of the involucre; the latter almost
entirely immersed in the involucrophorum, cupular, truncate, slightly bidentate on the
side of the neuter flower; areola of the neuter flower flat, bordered on both sides by
an acute raised ridge, with a basal circular scar, not or very slightly swollen on its
upper side. Female flowers ovate, 6 mm. long; the calyx cupular, strongly striately
veined, superficially 3-denticulate; the corolla about twice as long as the calyx, its
segments rather broadly triangular-lanceolate, acute. Neuter flowers obscurely trigonous,
AHN. KOY. BOT. GARD. OALCÜIXÍ YOL. X I I .