112 ANNALS OF THE ROTAL! BOTA.NIC GAEDEN, CALCrTTTA. [/). propinqUUS.
are robust, elastic, laminar and rise from a broad base, sub-lanceolate, subulate,
brown with lighter tip, often laciniate, more or less deflexed, and usually solitary;
other smaller but far more numerous spines are interposed between the foiraer and
are usually sca^.tered all over the surfacie, bat at times aro sabseriate and cover the
base of the petiole a« well ; the spines near the mouths of the leaf-shealhs are not
larger than the others. Leaves rather large, cirriferous; the petiole on its upper
surface is covered with short ascendent spines; the rachis is underneath roundish and
armed along the centre of the dorsum with claws that are at first solitary, then
3-nate, half-whorled at regular intervals towards the apex and still moro so on
the cirrus; on the upper surface the rachis is bifaced with a salient angle, which is
at first obtuse and sparsely prickly, but very acute and smooth towards the upper
e n d ; leaflets rather numerous, alternatQ or subopposite, rather remote (4-6 cm.
apart), equidistant, firuily papyraceous, glabrous, green, very slightly glossy on both
surfaces, narrowly lanceolate or lanceolate-ensil'orm, broadest near or below the middle,
long-acurainate to a subulate tip and rather gradually diminishing towards the base;
the mid-costa has a few short bristles on the upper surface, but only near the apex;
the secondary nerves are slender, and one on each side of the mid-costa is also
sparingly bristly; undBrneath the mid-costa alone has a few long bristles; the
transverse veiulcts aro very numerous, excessively minute, and give a faintly grained
appearance to both surfaces when observed uuder a lens; margins remotely (closer
towards the apex) spinulous; the intermediate—the largest—leaflets are 4 0 - t 2 cm.
long, 25-30 mm. broad; tlie upper are shorter, narrower, and, as usual, more remotely
set. Male apadiz . . . Female spadix nodding, sub-axillary, panicled; the ptinicle is
diffusedly ovoid, 40-60 cm. in length, with 6-7 partial inflorescences and a
pedieollar part which is 7 - 1 0 cm. long, ia slightly flattened, and lias rather acute
edges that are strongly armed with straight, thick, woody, i-igid, defiexed palmatedigitate
spines, arising from a very thick base and with the central spine of each group
longer than the others; primary spathels very thickly coriaceous, or almost woody, of a
cinnamon-brown colour, glabrous, and rather glossy inside, finely rusty-furfuraceous
externally, deciduous after flowering; the outermost apparently persists longer than
the others, and is armed all over, but especially along two faint dorsal cariacc with
the same kind of spines as those which cover the peduncular part, but move
slender, and often aligned into transverse horizontal series; the second and third
spathes bear only a few, solitary, or 3-nate-digitate spines along the centre of the
dorsum; the other spathels are smooth, and all in the unexpandod spadix protrude
gradually one above the other; the main axis is obsoletely angular in its lower
part, slightly flattened higher up, and bears the impressions left by the branches
and spikelets during prefloration; the internodes are 6 - 8 cm. long; the lowest ¡^largest)
partial inflorescences have a short peiluncular part 1-2 cm long, aro 12-16 cm. in
length, and have 3-5 spikelets on each side; the upper inflorescences are gradually
shorter, and have fewer spikelets; all have a distinct axillary callus; their axes are
rather thick and sub-trigonous; the secondary spathes are reduced to a very sliort,
annular, entire limb, slightly prolongel at one side into a short, acute point.
Spikdetg covered with an adherent, thin, rusty-i'urfuraceous indumentum, bifariously
inserted, but somewhat turned outwai-ds, the lowest—the largest—are 4 - 6 cm. long and
carry 5-9 alternately distichous and subsecnnd flowers in all; upper spikelets
shorter and with fewer flowers; the axes of the spikelets are sinuous, tliick and
D. propinquus.-] beccaei. t h e s p e c i e s of daemonoeops. 113
acutely trigonous; spathels resemble the secondary spathes, but are smaller;
involucrophorum pedicelliform, 3-5 mm. long, thick, slightly obconical, trigonous,
more or less callous at its axilla, truncate and flat above, and with a very narrow limb,
that is slightly extended at one side into a small triangular point; the involucre is
slightly rsdsod above the involucrophorum, is shortly and thickly pedicelliform,
fla't-discoid, orbicular 5 mm. in diameter at its upper end, edged by a short
limb, which is slightly produced on the outer side; areola of the neuter ilower
very'conspicuous, usually longer than broad, slightly concave and sharply edged.
Fruiting perianth explanate. FruU conspicuously stalked by the pedicelliform
involucre, rather large, 33-25 mm. long, about 20 mm. across in its broadest
part (a little above the base), ovoid-pyriform, i.e. rather conspicuously diminishing
from near the base towards a somewhat broad, and slightly depressed apex; the latter
crowned by the remains of the small, sessile, divergent, thickish, and lin'^ar stigmas
pericarp brittle; scales arranged in 16-18 longitudinal series, regularly
rhomboidal, broader than long ( 6 x 4 mm.) sharply and narrowly grooved along the
centre, abundantly covered with dragon's blood secretion, and glossy when covered
with it, otherwise dull and uniformly yellowish-brown, very slightly prolonged
intn a short, ro.md point, their margins faintly erosely-toothed. Send, when divested
of the dry, crustaceous, brittle (once fleshy) integument, broadly-conicalli-ovoid
from a flattish base, 15 mm. long, 12-13 mm, broad, slightly ventricose on the
raphal side; the chalazal fovea is placed a little below the middle, is slit-like and
does not penetrate very deeply into the albumen; the surface is very finely pitted,
and minutely grained; albumen deeply ruminated; embryo exactly basal. Sometimes
two seeds are to be met with in one fruit, and then they are flat on one side
and convex on. the other.
HABITAT.—Pub Penang {Griffith) where, as far as I know, it has not been
found again by modern botanists. In the Malayan Peninsula in the district of
Ferak (^eortecUni in Herb. Beccari). Also in Sumatra {Forbes No. 2287 in Herb.
Calcutt.). This is the best dragon's blood-yielding Rotang in the Malayan Peninsula.
Malay name "Kotang Djernang".
OBSERVATIONS.—It is very closely related to D. Draco, growing in Palembang,
from which it difiers by its fruit being more plainly pyriform, and by the conicaUy
»haped seed; it probably also differs in the leaf-sheatha which are, apparently,
covered with small spiculae in the Palembang plant, and conspicuously armed with
laminar spines in D. propinqms.
My description of D. propinquus is derived from many sources. I have
examined in the Herbarium at Kew a portion of the fruit spadix figured by G-riffith
in the plate CCI, B. yCalamus Draeo) and another specimen of a very young
spadix, apparently that figured in plate CCI, A. Identical with Griffith's specimen»
is one of Scottechini's accompanied by a portion of a leaf; on this material I
have based the description of the leaves and fruit ; the characteristics of the leafsheaths
are derived from Forbes's No. 2 2 8 7 ; in this specimen the spadix, in flower,
is 35 cm. long, and the leaflets aro 27 cm. long, and 22-23 mm. broad, or some«
what smaller than in Scortechini's typo specimens. The fruit figui-ed by Martini
that of Calamus Draco in plate 175, f. x 3, 4, 5, 7 and said to come from
ANK. EOT. BOT. GARD., CALCUTTA, VOL. X H .