188 Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



(18 to 30 feet, Beceari), petiole very short, with a stout swollen collar 

 on the sheath ; rachis armed with strong hooks ; leaflets linear lanceo- 

 late, rather abruptly acuminate 7 inches long, \ inch wide with a few 

 bristles on the edges and tip, in distant fascicles of 5 or 6 or pairs. In- 

 florescence very short 3 to 8 inches long. Spathes fusiform, beaked G 

 to 8 inches long, not caducous, almost unarmed except for a few spines 

 on the peduncle. Branches slender, spathels tubular with a short limb, 

 spathellules ovate, ribbed. Male spadix flowers small, subglobose. 

 Calyx short deeply 3 lobed. Petals broad. Female spadix stouter. 

 Calyx distinctly campanulate. Petals oblong, much longer. Fruit 

 pedicelled, ovate spherical, beaked, chestnut red £ inch long, scales 

 rhombic, hardly grooved rather large about 8 rows. Seeds bun-shaped, 

 flat beneath rounded above f inch long, albumen deeply pitted. Cala- 

 mus Laevigatas. Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. III. 339. Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. 

 III. 129. Calamus, sp. Griff. Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist. V. 72. Palm. 

 Brit. Ind. 72. 



Selangor : Semangkok Pass (Eidley 12120), (King's Coll. 575,971); 

 Perak : Goping (Kunstler 96), Bujong Malacca (Curtis, Bidley 9812), 

 Gunong Keledang (Eidley 9808), Kamuning (Machado) ; Dindings : 

 Lumut (Eidley, 7904, 10240, 3489). Endemic. In hill woods. Bec- 

 eari gives the length of stem 15 to 20 feet, and leaves 18 to 30 feet. I 

 never have seen it as big as this. 



22. Calamus, Linn. 



Climbing or rarely non-scandent palms, strongly armed with thorns 

 or spines : unisexual with pinnate leaves ending in a bare portion armed 

 with hooks (flagellum) or not. If not, with long slender flagella from 

 the leaf sheath, armed with hooks and having one or more close fitting 

 sheaths, {Inflorescence flagella). Inflorescence usually branched, long, 

 pendulous, axillary with tubular sheaths with or without a limb, often 

 armed (spathes), the branches with similar but smaller sheaths, (spa- 

 thels). The flower spikes with small sessile distichous flowers each 

 with a small sheath, (spathellule) and an ovate bract. Calyx tubular, 

 3-lobed. Corolla little longer, stamens 6 connate at the base. Female 

 flowers usually larger, ovary scaly. Stigmas 3 recurved, ovules basilar 

 erect. Fruit globose or ellipsoid, turbinate or oblong, drupaceous 

 covered with appressed scales testa pulpy, seed globose, oblong or 

 hemispheric. Embryo ventral or basal, albumen pitted, ruminate or equ- 

 able. Species about 200 chiefly Malayan, also African, Indian, Siamese, 

 Chinese to Formosa, Australian. The Calami are much less known 

 than the plants of the genus Daemonoro2)s on account of their rattans 

 being so much valued that they are always liable to be cut before the 

 plants flowers, so that in forests easily accessible it is seldom that one 

 can find flowers and fmit. Nor do all the stems even when full grown 

 produce flowers, so that one may find many plants of a species and 

 never one in flower. Thus Calamus insignis is very widely scattered 



