386 



THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON, 

 INDIGENOUS AND INTRODUCED. 



BY 

 E. liLATTEK, S.J. 



Part XX. 



{IViUt Plates GIVto CVL and 7 text figures.) 



II. CALAMUS FLORIBUNDUS, Griff, in Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist. V, 56 ; 

 Palms Brit. Ind. 66, pi. CXCVII ; Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. Ill, L37 ; Hook, 

 f. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI, 444; Becc. in Rec. Bot. Siiry. Ind. II, 204 ; Ann. Roy. 

 Bot. Gar. Calc. XI, 79, 191. — C. mishmiensis, Griff, in .lourn. Nat. Hist. 

 V, 55 ; Palms Brit. Ind. 65; Mitrt. Hist. Nat. Palm. Ill, 337.— C. multi- 

 fioru^. Mart, in Wallich's list No. 8613 {»^ide Mart. 1. c. 337, No. 506). 



Climbiug ; stem as thick as the middle finger; sheaths densely- 

 armed with bristles and long spines, rhachis with long spines and 

 short curved prickles. Leaflets few, inequidistant, 10-18 inches long, 

 1-1^ inch broad, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, uppermost crowded 

 at the end of the rhachis and connate, margins and costa3 beneath 

 setulose ; petiole and lower spathe armed with very short, stout, and 

 long, scattered, flattened, pale spines ; lower spathe 18 inches long, 

 coriaceous, terete, mouth very oblique ; spathels acuminate. 

 Flagelli with short or long, simple or compound, recurved claws and 

 jipines, spadix elongate, where exposed plano-convex, armed on thr 

 convex face with hooked prickles ; branches distant, supra-decom- 

 pound, the lowermost deflexed, the upper ones ascending, the 

 internodes concealed by spathes with truncate margins more or 

 less ciliate, grey from whitish filamentous hairs. Branchlets which 

 bear the spikes recurved or spreading, with short, acute, often 

 mucronate spathes. Spikes attached midway between these, short, 

 scarcely more than half an inch long, subscorpioid. Male 

 flowers distichous, ovate, suffulted by a small bract which is 

 ciliate and generally penicillate at the apex, and also by 2 

 bracteoles less combined than usual, sometimes nearly distinct. 

 Calyx divided to the middle, segments half-ovate, corolla about 

 twice the length of the calyx, divided almost nearly to the 

 base, segments ovate-lanceolate, spreading. Stamens united to the 

 base of corolla ; filaments long, subulate, flexuose in the bud : 

 anthers obtusely sagittate, attached above the middle, versatile. 

 Pistillode of 3 rather small, distinct bodies. Female flowers on 

 .simpl}^ spiked, more elongate branches. Spikes 2-3 inches long, 

 alternate, generally recurved, flexuose, pale ferruginous-tomentose. 

 Flowers rather distant, suffulted by an amplectent bract with a 

 short, acuminate limb, and by 2 bracteoles, of which the inner 

 bears an incomplete disc on one side. Calyx (in bud) ovate- 



