m AKNAL3 OF THE EOTAL BOTANIC GAEDEN, CALCUTTA. [D. ruber.
is certainly that of D. propinquxis; probably it belonged to the same fruitspadix
figured by Griffith in plate CCI, 13; its seed (fig, 5, 7) has the characferisticconical
ovoid form peculiar to D. profinqms, wherens the seed represented by
the figures 6 and 8 of the same plate, which is oblong in section is apparently
that of D. Draco from Palembang.
PLATE 44.—Daemotiorops propinquus Beoc, An intermediate poi-tion of a leaf
and a fruiting spadix; seed entire, from the raphal and antiraphal side; another
seed longitudinally cut through the chakzal fovea and tlie embryo. From Scortechini's
specimen in Herb. Beccari.
PLATE 45.—Daemonoxops propinquus Bece. Portion of the sheathed stem with
two feiuale apadices shortly after the flowering stage; the upper end of a leaf. From:
Forbes' No. 2287 in Herb. Beccari.
42. DAEMONOBOPS RUBER B1. Rumphia, iii, 6 (partly as to description), pi. 148
f. 8 - i y ; Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, iii, 205, 2ad edit.cJ (only as to the
plant of Reinwardti); Walp. Ann. iii, 478, and v, 828; Miq. Fl. Ind.
Bat. iii, 95; Teijsm. Cat. Hort. Bogor. 74.
Calamus ruber Reinwardt in Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, iii, 209, Ist edit., pi.
116 f. 0, fruit; Kuuth, Enum. PI. iii, 20S; Miquel, Anakcta Bot. Ind.
6, and De Palm. Arc, lud. 29.
Damonorops accedcns Bl. Rumphia iii, 13 (excl. var. Irevispatha , pi. 133;.
Walp. Ann. iii, 478 and v, 828; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat., iii, 94, and Prodr.
Fl. Sum. 256 and 593(?); Teijsm. Cat. Hort. Bogor. 74.
Cahmua accedens Miq. De. Palm. Arc. Ind., 28; H. VVendl. in Kerch.
Palm. 235.
Falmijuncus Draco (only
V, 116.
to the fruits from Java) Rumph. Herb. Amb.
DESCRIPTION.—Scandent, rather robust. Sheathed aiem 2*5-4 cm. in diam. Leafshcaiks
fugaciously rusty-brown furfuraceoua, powerfully armed with lead-brown, fiat,,
very unequal, horizontal or slightly deflexed spines, of which, some are large and as
much as 5 cm. in length, slightly wavy or sinuous, approximate by their broad bases,
and more or less irregularly seriate, while others, more numerous and a good deal
smaller, are interposed between the large ones, and are either scattered, or more
or less seriate. Leaves large, about 2 m. long including the petiole, and prolonged
(those at least on the upper part of the stem) into a long and clawed cirrus^
the petiole in the leaves of the upper part of the adult plant is 12-13 mm. broad
and about 3J cm. long, while in leaves of young plants and in those of the lower
part of adult plants is twice as longcf; it is plano-convex just at its base, otherwise
flattened-biconvex, armed on the upper surface and on the margins with straight
prickles, those on the margins being the longest, on the lower armed along the
centre from end to end with straight, strong, at times deflexod, 3-nate prickles,
which change into claws on the raohis; the latter convex in its first portion on the •
upper surface, where «¡ore or less armed with scatterud prickles and with a narrow
D. ruber.'} BECOARI, THE SPECIES OP DAEMONOEOPS, 115
groove on each side, in which the leaflets are inserted; higher up the rachis is
bifaced on its upper surface with a very acute and smooth salient angle, while the under
surface is armed with half-whorls of claws, which are united in the cirrus in groups
of five to seven, or even to as many as nine. Leaflets rather numerous (40-50 in all)
alternate or sub-opposite, rather remote (5-8 cm. apart), sub-equidistant, firmly papyraceous,
glabrous, green and faintly glossy on both surfaces, narrowly lanceolate or lanceolateensiform,
broadest about or below the middle, long-acuminato to a subulate tip and
narrowing slightly and gradually towards the base; the mid-costa has on the upper
surface a few short bristles near the apex only, the side nerves are slender and one of
these on each side is also bristly; underneath tlie mid-costa alone carries a very few
short bristles, or is at times quite bare; the transverse veinlets are excessively minute,
numerous, short, and have an obsoletely-grained appearance on both surfaces when seen
under a lens; margins minutely, appvessedly and remotely spinulous but less remotely so
near th.^ apex ; the intermediate (largest? leaflets are 30-45 cm. long, 3-3-5 cm. broad ;
the upper are smaller and more distant. Male and female spadices very similar before
flowering, elongate (40-65 cm. long), cylindraceous, about as thick as a man's finger,
nodding, and with a short, flattened, two-edged, smooth or prickly pedicellar part;
primary spathes imbricate . the outermost is the shortest, and each following spathe
rises considerably above that immediately below it, all thickly coriaceous, alnxost
woody, cinnamon-brown and glabrous internally, finely ruaty-furfuraceous externally at
least on the covered parts ; the outermost, which is long persistent, when expanded ia
slightly concave, oblong-spathulate, 4-5 cm. wide in its broadest part or above the
middle, and diminishes gradually towards the base, the upper end diminishing to a
broadly triangular, but not very acute, and often bidentate point; the t)uter surface
is acutely two-keeled but only near the base, and is powerfully armed with strong
digitate or shortly seriate, flat, unequal, horizontal, light-coloured spines; the inner
•spathes, which are at first cylindraceous, are after the anthesis flat with revolute margins ;
the inner spathes are thinner in texture, narrower and somewhat longer than the outer
one and have a single line of digitate spines along the centre of the dorsum in their
exposed upper portions. Male spadix, when in flower, strict, very narrowly cupressiform
with 6-7 partial inflorescences; the main axis is subterete, slender as pack-thread, slightly
einuous; secondary spathes inconspicuous, reduced to a very small and short
infundibuliform limb, slightly produced at one side into a triangular point; partial
inflorescences 6-7 cm. apart, 8-10 cm. long, borne on a short, slender, pedicellar
part; they are erect, strict, cupressiform, divided into several slightly furfuraceous
branchleta carrying eaoli 7-8 small spikelets; of the latter the loweat^the largest—are
about 2 cm. long with 7-8 not quite regularly set, almost unilateral flowers; the axis
of the spikelets is very slender, filiform, slightly furfuraceous and superficially notched
at the insertion of the flowers; spathels braoteiform, scarious, very small, short, broad
and obtuse; involucres reduced to inconspicuous scales round tbe base of the
flowers. MaU flowers narrow, linear, bluntish, obsoletely angular, slightly sinuous and
asymmetric, 5-ij mm. long; the calyx very short, cyathiform, obnonical, with 3 acute
teeth; the corolla 4-5 times as long as the calyx. Female spadiz elongate with
7-8 partial inflorescences that are 10-15 cm. long (strict .and cupressiform aurmg
the anthesis), borne on a short peduncular part and carrying several spikelets,
covered in every part with a fine rusty-fui'furaceous, not very adherent and partially
fugacious scurf; the intemodes of the main axis are 6-7 cm. long, thicker than in
AMN. ROY. BOT. QARD., CALCUTTA, VOL. X I I .