@ALAMUS. | PALM. 289 
flowers: slightly accrescent, fruiting pedicelliform or explanate, 
Calyx tubular, 3-toothed. Corolla tubular, 3-fid., lobes valvate. 
Staminodes forming a cup. Ovary incompletely 3-celled, clothed 
with retrorse scales, style short or long, stigmas 3; ovules basilar, 
erect. Fruit globose or ellipsoid, style terminal; pericarp thin, 
clothed with adpressed deflexed closely imbricate shining scales, 
Seed subglobose or oblong, smooth or pitted; albumen equable 
or ruminate, embryo ventral or basal.—Species about 165; in 
India and Malaya to S. China and N, Australia, a few also in Trop. 
Africa. 
C. tenuis, Roxb. ; Fl. Ind, iii, 780; Brandis For, Fl. 559 (in 
part); Ind, Trees 652; F. B. I. vi, 447; Watt EB. D. vol. II, 
Pt. 1,23; Gamb. Man. 735 ; Kanjilal (ed. 2) 412; Prain Beng. 
Pl. 1099; Beccari in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. ti, 206; Ann. R. Bot. 
Gard. Cale. xi, part 1, 262, t. 94.—Vern. Bet, bent. 
Stems very long, scandent; internodes not thicker than a goose-quill. 
Leaves 14-2 ft. long; leaflets very many, equidistant; lower ones 
8-12 in. long by }-} in. wide ; margins minutely setulose or spinulose ; 
uppermost leaflets gradually smaller, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 
the 3 coste all setose above, the median one only below; petiole 
short, stout, margined with straight spines, and rhachis armed with 
one row of short recurved spines; sheaths flagelliferous, sparingly 
armed with short flat spines. Spadix very long, decompound, flag- 
elliferous. Spathes elongate, tubular, the lower ones with a short 
limb and scattered recurved spines. Lower spikes panicled, 14-4 in. 
long. Flowers very small; the males , in. long, secund in 3-4 
series, imbricating, suberect. Fruit subglobose, 4 in. in diam., 
mucronate; scales pale, with a shallow median channel and very 
narrow discoloured margins. 
Pientiful in Dehra Dun in swampy ground ; also in the Sub-Himalayan 
tracts eastwards to Gorakhpur. Flowers during July and Aug., and 
the fruit ripens in the cold season. Disrris.: Trop. Himalaya 
from Garhwal and Kumaon eastwards to Assam, Chittagong, Burma 
and Cochin. Thisis the common rattan of N. India, largely used 
for mats screens and baskets. The leaves are largely eaten by 
buffaloes, and the scaly fruits are often made into rosaries. 
The two following palms require some special mention here for 
the reasons given under each :—]. WALLICHIA DENSIFLORA, Jfart.; 
F. B. I. vi, 419; Kurz For, Fl. ti, 532 ; Watt HE. D.; Brand, For. 
