the axial portion of the
than iu Pipiospatha
INTRODUCTION.
idix is often very short, much uiore in Ci/mlospatk't
I n all the species of the group Pipiospaiha the malo panicle is usually more
elongated than the female; thus the "male panicle of the spocies belonging to tlie
group of D. Draco is almost always ieiy strictly cuprossiform, while the female ia
loosely and diffusely paniculate ah least during the period of fructification. Only
in a few specios (/>. genisulatus, D. longipes and D. longispathus) is the male
panicle comparatively large and spreading. In D. scapigerm the panicle is very
short, and borne on a long and slender pi^iuncalar portion. In the species^ of
group Cymhospatha, the internodes of the female spadices are very short, and often
swollen in their basal part.
Very frequently the various organs of Daenionorops, and specially those of the
species beloncñng to the section Cymlospatha, are covered with a rusty or tobaccocoloured
indumentum, which is extremely oiiaracteristic and is exceedingly noticeable
in D. tahacinus; also the various parts of the spikelets are covered with a similar
rusty-looking scurf, which is formed of small, dry scales carried upon a short
pedicel or very short base: with age those scales fall oS, while thoir bases, which
are persistent, render the surface on which the scales rested mmutely scabrous.
The appendicular parts of the spadices of the Dr,emomrops, although constructed
on the same plan as those of the Calami, nevertheless present certain features
proper to themselves: these will be described later.
VI.-The Spikelets.
The spikelets of Daemonorops differ greatly, as a general rule, in the seses, and
appear at a first glance to be, in almost every case, very different from those of
t h e C.lami; yet they are, as a fact, constructed on the same plan. I know only
of two s.ecies (O. vertioiUaris and D. gmiculatus) in whicli the male spikelets are
indistinguishable from those of a Oahmm, with comb-like spikelets, with close-set
flowers, infuudibuliform spathels and eupular involucres (PI. II, f. 6). Also the male
, of D. longispathm greatly resemble those of the Calirni; but generally the male
of Laemonorops have a very slender axis, the spathels are reduced to mere
and the involucres are scarcely distinguishable; the male spikelets of all the
of the group of D. UyBtrix and D. Draco have this structure. Tho male
flowers on the axis of the above-described spikdets are moreover but rarely
perfectly distichous, and they are not arranged in one plane; whereas the contrary is
almost always the case in the Calami. The male spikelets of D. longipeB rccall those
of certain Gramineae. In a very few cases (in D. longispalhm and Ü. rupühs) the female
spikelets are, in their spathels and other involucres, extremely similar to those of a
Calamus • but, as a rule, they differ greatly from the latter, so much so that several
authors refuse to call them spikelets at all, but branchlets, on account of their
spathels not being infundibuliform but resembling mere scales, and also because
t L i r inyolucrophorum is far more developed than in a Calamus, boing often several
millimetres in length, and thus forming a pedicel to the fruit, although it does not
a very distinct limb (PI. I, f. 1, 5, 7, e).
THE SPIKELETá.
The involucre of the female flower is often formed by a kind of pedicel raised
above the involucrophorum (PI. I, f. 1, 7, d), and terminating in a flat, nearly
circular superficies which is the scar left by the fallen flowers; this scar is surrounded
only by an excessively narrow ridge m such a fashion that all the parts which should
support the flowers seem to want every foliaceous appendicular part. This is very
marked in the species of the groups of -0. nystriz and D. miralilis; at times
tho involucre is evolved asymmetrically or unilaterally and assumes almost the
shape of an ear, because the areola of the neutral flower is situated on tho most
developed side, and thus rendered very conspicuous; this occurs in D. gcniculatus,
D. ttcanthololiiB, D. scapigerus, D. periacar.tlms, D. longispathus. The involucro of the
female flower of D. crisialus is also singular, borne as it is in a strangely oblique
manner by the involucrophorum, and then prolonged on one side at the margin into
a kind of small pedicel, which carries the sterile flower.
The female spikelets of D. ruptilis have quadrifarious flowers, and the same
may be said of D. sparsiflorus; but, in any case, the female flowers are bifarioiis and
more or less distichous, though often with a tendency to be unilateral. The spathels
are large, spathaceotis and amplectent in D. ruptilis, and infundibuliform in D. lovgispatlms,
as in a typical Calamus (PI. II, f. (S, 10). The involucrophorum has a pedicellar
part and is infundibuliform in D. ruptilis (exactly as iu a Calamus); in D. Bystrix,
D. Korthalsii, ajid D. Gaitdichaudii it is callous in the axilla; but in most of the
Dacmonorops the involucrophorum has lost its appendicular nature to assume tho axial.
The involucro of the female spikelets, though in most Dacmonorops it has a
form peculiar to itself, is nevertheless in D. longispathus indistinguishable from that of
a Calamus, and in D. ruptilis has, as in several C'ilami, a pedicellar and also an
infundibular part. In D. Treuhianus, D. Sepal, D. pimngianus, and D.
small callosity is formed at the axil of the involucre together with the axis.
The areola of the sterile flowers (PL I, f. 1, 7, d-, PI. II, f, 8, 10, e) is found
in Daemonorops as in Calamus, for as in the latter the female flowers are accomp
by a neuter or sterile flower. Only in D. Kunstlerii have I found no trace of
areola, the sterile flower being, as it would appear, also wanting. In certain
the areola is very indistinct, being represented by a small punctiform pit, while in
other cases it is as clearly defined as in the Calami.
In the species of gmup of D. Draco, in D. dichjmophijllus, D. Riedelianus,
D. gcniculatus, D. acanthoholus, but especially in D. longispathus, the areola is ovate, and
very clearly circumscribed by raised margins, just as in a typical Calamus (PI. II,
f. 8, 10, c). The shape of the areola iu the species of the group Cymlospatha is
also peculiar; In these the scar of the sterile flower is surrounded (though in the
greater number on the upper side only) by a serai-circle (at times a double one)
80 tumescent as to simulate a nectary (PI. I, f. 7, d!').
I n D. cristatus a true areola is wanting, because a neutral flower is borne
laterally upou a sub-pedicelliform prolongation of the margin of the involucre.