■Calamus.'] Palmece. 335 



9. C. zeylanicus, Becc. in Fl. B. hid. vi. 455 (1893). Ma- 

 -w^wel, Wanderu-wel, ^. 



C. n/dentu/n, Moon, Cat. 26 ; Thw. Enum. 330 (non Lour.). C. P. 



2874- 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 4SS- 



Stem very stout, scandent ; sheaths not flagelliferous ; 1. 

 4-5 ft. long, petiole stout, armed with 3-fid recurved spines, 

 rhachis very stout, and its stout flagellum armed with large, 

 broad, decurved, palmately 5-10-cleft, claw-like, woody spines 

 broader than the rhachis, young scurfy; leaflets many, equi- 

 distant, iJ-2 ft. by i-ii in.,ensiform, long, acuminate, veins 3-5, 

 very sparingly setulose above, naked beneath ; lower spathe 

 acute, armed with very short scattered spines, upper striate, 

 unarmed or sparcely spinous, uppermost funnel-shaped, trun- 

 cate ; male spadix decompound, the long spreading spikes 

 with short spathels bearing short broad flat spikelets, J-i in. 

 long, of most closely imbricate spathellules; fem. spadix very 

 stout, with much longer spikes ; fl. deeply sunk in the truncate 

 spathellules, ovoid, nearly :| in. long; cal. deeply 3-lobed; 

 pet. broad, connate at the base, both striate ; fr. seated on the 

 enlarged perianth, globose, f in. diam., yellow-brown, beak 

 long, stout, conical, scales 8 or 10 in a vertical series, tumid, 

 with narrow white furfuraceous margins and a deep central 

 channel; seed globose, endosperm deeply ruminate, embryo 

 lateral. 



Moist low country; rather common below 1500 ft. Kalutara (Moon); 

 Sabaragamuwa frequent. 



Endemic. 



10. C. ovoideus, Thw. ex Trim, in Journ. Bot. xxiii. 269 (1885). 

 Tambutu-wel, S. 



C. P. 3925. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 457. 



Stem stout, scandent; 1. 14 ft, including the flagellum, and 

 more; leaflets 10-24 by \-\ in., equidistant, alternate, broadly 

 linear, acuminate, tip bristly, 3-veined, setulose beneath, 

 margins smooth, rhachis fugaciously scurfy, margins prickly, 

 dorsally rounded, with solitary hooked spines, flagellum 

 armed with short, broad, many-toothed spines, sheath densely 

 armed with rings of flattened, deflexed, often lacerate, black 

 spines ; lower spathes armed with short, black, reflexed spines ; 

 fl. not seen; fr. seated on the shortly pedicelled slightly 

 enlarged perianth, f in. long, obovoid, strongly beaked, scales 

 10-12 in a vertical series, tumid, deeply channelled in the 

 centre, pale yellowish-grey, bordered with orange-brown. 



Moist low country ; rare. Sabaragamuwa, 1866 (Thwaites). 



Endemic. 



The specimens are insufficient for a good description. 



