782 DioECiA HEXANDRiA. Calamus. 



ceolate, three-nerved leaflets in three remote fascicles; 

 sheaths flasfelliferous. 



Mapoori Bet of the Hindoos of Chittagong. 



Tsjera-tsjurel. Rheed. Mai. xii. t. 04. 



A native of the forests of Chittagong, where Mr. W. Rox- 

 burgh found it clinibinof over trees and bushes to a f>reat ex- 

 tent, and in flower in the month of May. This species is un- 

 commonly slender when divested of the sheaths of the leaves 

 and dry, scarcely as thick as a common quill, in texture firm 

 and elastic, covered with a smooth, straw-coloured crust as 

 in the common ratan. 



Stems simple, perennial, climbing to a great extent ; all the 

 tender or younger parts toward their extremities invested, in 

 the armed sheaths of the leaves, including these about as 

 thick as a man's little finger. Leaves alternate, recurved in- 

 terruptedly pinnate, if I may be allowed to call a pinnated 

 leaf so, which is destitute of smaller leaflets between the prin- 

 cipal ones, from one to two feet long. Leaflets collected in 

 three opposite bundles of from two to four pair each, with 

 much more of the rachis left naked between them than the 

 spaces they occupy, sessile, doubled backwardly at the base, 

 linear-lanceolate, bristly, pointed, both surfaces lucid, 

 three-nerved ; nerves on the upper side as well as the mar- 

 gins, bristly, from three to five inches long, and less than one 

 inch broad. Rib or rachis carinated along the upper side, 

 when young covered with ferruginous dust, rounded under- 

 neath, and armed with recurved prickles. Flafjelli or ten- 

 drils, issue single as in the other species, from near the 

 mouths of the sheaths of the leaves; they are long, jointed, 

 slender as a pack-thread, drooping, sheathed, armed with 

 numerous, very sharp, recurved prickles. Male. Spadix 

 from the mouths of the sheaths or opposite sides of the fla- 

 gelli, compound, jointed ; joints approximate, sheathed ; ra- 

 mifications recurved, bearing two rows of sessile flowers on 

 their convex side. Calyx one-leaved, tridentate, sitting on 

 the joints of the rachis in a three-toothed cup, which may be 



