124 A FLORA OF MANILA 
to linear-lanceolate, straight on the lower side, curved and variously 
‘irregularly toothed on the upper, acuminate. Inflorescence very large, 
pendulous, up to 2 m in length, the peduncles curved, 10 cm in diameter, 
the spathes large, the first up to 40 cm long, the largest 1 m in length. 
Spikes very numerous, furfuraceous, 80 to 150 ecm long. Male flowers 2 
cm in diameter. Petals oblong-ovate, dull-purplish and yellow, 10 to 11 
mm long. Stamens about 40. 
Occasionally cultivated, fi. continuously, from the upper axils first, 
until exhausted, when the tree dies. Java. x 
4. CALAMUS Linnaeus 
Spiny, slender, climbing, rarely erect palms, the leaves, sheaths, or 
inflorescences bearing long, slender, retrorsely armed flagellae. Leaves 
alternate, pinnate, the leaflets entire, acuminate, the sheaths spiny, produced 
into a ligule or ochrea. Inflorescence axillary, usually elongated, branched. 
Spathes tubular or open, persistent, sheathing the peduncle and branches 
of the inflorescence, close or distant, passing into bracts and bracteoles. 
Flowers small, polygamo-dioecious, in distichous often scorpoid spikes. 
Male flowers with a cupular 3-toothed calyx. Petals 3, acute, valvate. 
Stamens 6. Female flowers with a calyx as in the males. Corolla tubular 
below, 3-fid. Staminodes forming a cup. Fruit globose to ovoid, 1-seeded, 
covered with appressed, imbricated, spirally arranged scales. (Greek 
“reed.’’) 
Species about 175, tropical Asia to Australia, few in tropical Africa, 
about 35 in the Philippines. 
1. C. mollis Blanco. Uay (Tag.); Bejuco (Sp.-Fil.) ; Rattan. 
A climbing slender palm 2 to 3 to many meters in length, the stems 10 to 
12 mm in diameter, the younger parts armed with sharp slender spines. 
Leaves about 80 cm long, the rachis not produced, armed beneath with 
short, curved spines; leafiets linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 20 to 30 cm long, 
margins with short, slender, spiny teeth. Inflorescence leaf-opposed, the 
rachis slender, armed with refiexed spines, up to 1.5 m in length, the tip 
produced as a long armed flagella. Partial inflorescences, few, remote, 6 to 
15 cm long. Flowers yellow, fragrant, the males about 3 mm long, crowded 
in distichous, straight or curved, linear-oblong, 1 to 2.5 cm long spikes, 9 
to 15 to each partial inflorescence. Fruits many, ellipsoid, apiculate, 
abouticm long. (FI. Filip. pl. 99.) 
In thickets, Pasay, occasional, fl. most of the year; widely distributed in 
the Philippines. Endemic. 
Young plants of some other species of this genus are commonly cultivated 
in Manila for ornamental purposes; one of the most common being C. dis- 
color Mart., the leaves white on the lower surface. 
5. NIPA Wurmb 
A gregarious palm of brackish swamps, from stout, branched rootstocks. 
Leaves elongated, pinnate; leaflets lanceolate, entire. Inflorescence erect, 
from the rootstock, the male with many, brown, imbricate sheaths (spathes), — 
the male flowers small, mixed with slender bracteoles, in catkin-like lateral 
branches of the spadix. Sepals linear, the tips broad, inflexed. Petals 
smaller. Stamens 3. Female flowers much larger than the males, in 
globose terminal heads. Fruit large, globose, of many, dark-brown, some- 
