218 



JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



f-- 



C - 



I 



3. 



Fig. o — C. firiffitltianui!. 



1. Female flower during- anthesin. 



a=involucrophorum, b = involucre, f = neuter flower. 



2. Another female flower with its involucres during- anthesis. 



3. Female flower with its involucre still closed, c = areola. 

 Enlargfed (\ diam. (After Beccari). 



Fruit globose or ellipsoid, usiiall}^ strongly beaked ; style terminal ; 

 pericarp thin, clothed with appressed deflexed closely imbricating 

 polished scales. Seed subglobose or oblong, smooth or pitted ; 

 albumen equable or ruminate ; embryo ventral or basal. 



Species over 200.- — Tropical and sub-tropical Asia, Malaya, 

 Philippines, New Guinea, Australia, and a few in tropical Africa. 



The Calami are mostly leaf-climbers with thin reedy stems. 

 In some species there are hooks on the back of the midrib, but the 

 more common type of leaf is one in which the leaflets at the outer 

 end of the leaf are represented by stout spines pointing backwards. 



The leaf shoots almost vertically out of the bud up among the 

 surrounding vegetation, and the hooks take hold. The stem often 

 grows to immense lengths (500-600 feet). 



Economic importance. — " The Forest Departments of the various 

 provinces in India, incliTding Burma, publish annual reports from 

 which it might be gathered that the J^early crop of canes amounts to 

 about 10,000,000 maunds and the annual revenue therefrom from 

 Rs. 50,000-60,000. The Reports of the Conservators of Forests in 

 Burma for the year 1904-5, for example, show a total revenue from 

 canes amounting to Rs. 37,775. The imports of canes and rattans 

 into India from foreign countries may be said to average from 30,000 



