ANNALS OP iHE EOTAL BOTANIC GiRDE.V, CALCUfTA. {D. oxycarpus
Quinerous, alternate or opposite, especially towards tlio apex, aloiost equidistant,
2 - 3 cm. apart, liDear-onsiform, slightly Darrowing towards the base, and gi-adually
acuminate upwards to a loug filiform and bristly tip, V5-30 cm. long, 10-17 mm.
broad, dull-green and finely loogitudinally striately-reined on both surfaces; the
mid-costa acute above, with one, sometimes two, slender nerves on each side of it,
all carrying short spadiceous, appressed, sub-spinous bristles; beneath the mid-cosfa alone
is finely and very closely bristly; transverse veiuleta numerous, short, sinuous, much
interrupted, but not very conspicuous; margins ciliate-spinulous. Mah spadix
Famls spadà elongate (50-60 cm. long) before floweiing, cylindraceous, slender","a^
thick as a man's finger, axillary in appearance, but really attached on the
ventral side not far below the mouth of its sheath ; the peduncular part is
9-1Ô cm. long, flattened, slightly broadened in its upper part, powerfully armed with
short, woody, confluent, fascicled, or digitate or seriate, slightly deflesed spines ; primary
spathes thickly coriaceous, tubular before flowering and very obliquely truncate at
the mouth ; afterwards the outermost opens, is flat and oblong, has a few spines
on two dorsal keels, and is more or less persistent ; the others are deciduous and
unarmed, with about two-thirds of their length protruding beyond that immediately
below; fruiting spadix erect or nodding, and forming a loose, ovoid panicle, 40—45 cm.
i n length, with 5-6 partial inflorescences ; axial parts more or less covered with a
thin rusty-furfuraceous indumeutuoi ; the main axis is very irregularly angular,
slightly flattened, marked by depressions and gibbosities which are due to the
pressure of the adjoining parts during prefioration ; the partial inflorescences are
«preading, and have a veiy conspicuous axillary callus with a transversal fovea ;
the lowest and intermediate inflorescences are 10-14 cm. long and have only 3-4
distichous spikelets on each side ; the upper ones are smaller and have very few
apikelets; secondary spathes very short, scale-like, slightly prolonged at one side
into a small triangular point; spikelets rather slender, very spreading, with strong
axillary calluses and rigid, angular, and rather strongly zig-zig sinous axes, 5-7
cm. long with very few (3-5) bifarious flowers on each side; spathels very short,
subannular, prolonged at one side into a small, triangular, acute point; mvolucrophorum
pedicelliform, clavate, angular, usually mm., but at times as much as 4 mm
in length, distinctly callous at its axilla, slightly widened at its apex on one
side into a broadly triangular point; involucre discoid, slightly exserted from the involuerophorum,
with the broad flat terminal disc bordered by a very narrow almost
inconspicuous margin ; areola of the neuter flower punctiform, slightly callous.
Female flowers very slendfr, almost linear, slightly narrowing towards their upper
ends, 5-5-6 mm. long, and only about 2 mm. broad at the base; the calyx is
shortly obconical, strongly striately-veiued, and it has on the margin three triangular
acuminate teeth, which terminate in a small tuft of hairs, persisting to the maturity
of the fruit ; the corolla is twice as long as the calyx, urceolate, and undivided to
about the middle; its segments are linear, acute. Fruiting perianth non-explanate,
pedicelliform with a flat base, due to the hardened base of the calyx and of the
tubular part of the corolla. Fmit narrowly elliptical, almost equally narrowing towards
both ends, gradually conically beaked above, 22-33 mm. long, 10 mm. broad ; scales
rather glossy, small, arranged in 12 longitudinal series, each series composed of at
least 12 well-formed scales (omitting the rudimentary one of the beak) of a cinnamon-
>)ro\vn colour, with a darker undefined intramarginal band ; the margin itself very
D. microstachys] UECCAEI. THE SPECIES OK DAEMONOKOPS. 133
narrow, scarious, distinctly ciliate-denticulate; the point round. Seed oblong (not
seen quite mature).
HABITAT.—Borneo: In Sarawak at Kuching {Beocari P. B. Nos. 19.32 and
250); at Lubuan '^LobO in Herb. Kew.l The Malayan name in Sarawak is " Rotang
mignac". The strips cut from its stem are very strong aad extremely tough, and are
therefore frequently used to fasten the iron blade of the " Bilion" (the Malay axe)
to its handle. Low, who also collected this species in Borneo (Herb. Kew.), gives
the name of " Uotang putte duri" (Rotang having white spines).
OBSERVATION.-¿>. ox//carj>us is a very well marked spocies, easily distinguishable
by the large swelling at the base of the petiole; by the membranous laciniate
formations which take the place of true spines on the leaf-sheaths, and by the
ellipsoidftl elongate fruit which gradually narrows upward to a conical beak and
downwards to an acute base.
I'LATE .-)3.—Daemonorops oxycarpus Becc. The upper portion of a leaf-sheath
with the petiole and the lower part of a female spadix (in situ) before the aathesis
(on the left hand side of the plate); from Becc. P. B. No. 250. A fruiting spadix ;
an intermediate portion of a leaf, upper surface; portion of the sheathed stem •
from Becc. P. B. No. 1932. '
DAEMONOROPS OXYCARPUS LEViPES Becc.
Differs from the "forma typica" in the leaf-sheaths, which are quite smooth
and entirely devoid of tlie peculiar sub-foliaceous spines, but are furnished with the
same conspicuous globose gibbosity at the base of the petiole.
HABITAT.—Dutch N.-W. Borneo at Lianggagan in the Residency of Sambas
{Hallier No. 2594, in Eerb. Hort. Bot. Bogor.).
50. DAEMONOROPS MICROSTACHYS Becc. in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 225.
DKSCKIPTION.—Small. Stem erect, about I m. high (Lobb). Leaf-sheaihs 15-18
mm. in diam., not gibbous above, open on the ventral side a long way down,
rusty-furfuraceous, armed with flat, brown-tipped, otherwise light-coloured, 1-2 cm.
long, horizontally seriate, but individually distinct spines, and with other spine®
much smaller interposed between the series of the larger; a few ,spines 4-5 cm.
long stand erect near the mouth of the leaf-sheath. Oerea inconspicuous. Leaves noncirriferous
(always?); petiole rather elongate, smooth and concave on the upper
surface near its base, flat higher up, underneath strongly convex and armed along
the centre, at intervals of 3-4 cm., with solitary, straight, and slightly deflexed
spines, which change into light-coloured claws higher up; the edges are not very
acute, and are armed towards the base with a few straight, spreading, 2-3
spines, which in prefoliation point upwards and leave upon the petiolar
5ep impressions of their outline, gradually becoming shorter higher up
and disappearing where the leaflets begin; the rachis is laterally on the upper surface
deeply grooved at first and then has an acute, non-prickly, salient angle, and flat