10 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
In a few species, such as C. ornatus and . C, conirostris the leaflets gradually 
diminish in size towards, and become abortive at the apex of the leaf, while the 
rachis becomes more “clawed” there than it is lower down, without, however, the 
development of a terminal portion devoid of leatlets. 
If in the higher part of the stem of an adult Calamus the leaves are destitute 
of a cirrus, then it is certain that the species is never cirriferous except as an 
abnormality, such as I have observed in O. heteroideus, in its var. pallens, | and in 
C. exilis, where occasionally a very slender cirrus appears at the apex of their 
otherwise constantly paripinnate leaves. 
Whole groups of species are characterised by the absence of cirri from their 
leaves, and it never happens that a species with non-cirriferous leaves in the upper 
part of its stem is cirriferous lower down: the opposite condition is, however, of 
common occurrence. For example, in a terminal portion of C. asperrimus, one 
metre in length, with five fully expanded leaves, the lowest of these leaves ended 
in two leaflets with no rudiment of a cirrus between them, the next above had a 
scarcely aculeolate cirrus 7 cm. in length, while the sixth had the cirrus 55 cm. 
long and densely armed with 3-nate claws. In the intermediate leaves the cirrus 
exhibited a gradual transition between these two extremes. 
When there is no cirrus the leaves end in two equal or sub-equal leaflets 
which are usually the smallest on the whole leaf, and may be perfectly free at the 
base or may be, to a greater or less extent, connate. Sometimes a very short 
rudimentary cirrus appears normally between the two terminal leaflets, as in C. 
Blumei and C. rhomboideus ; still more rarely the leaf terminates in a small solitary 
undivided leaflet as.in C. ramosissimus. 
In most Calami the leaves are pinnate and the leaflets very regularly disposed. 
on both sides of the rachis, but in this case I have frequently observed all the 
leaflets on one side slightly smaller tkan the corresponding leaflets of the opposite 
side, and at times even more remotely inserted on the rachis, Very frequently the 
leaflets are inequidistant, geminate or attached in couples, as in ©. latifolius, or 
aggreguted in three, four, or even larger numbers along the rachis, as in C. 
gracilis, C. fasciculatus, ete. s 
In Calami the leaflets are always symmetric at 
the base except in C. Blumet 
and to a less degree in C. tomentosus ; they never ar | ms 
e sigmoid or faleate. 
í Most frequently they are broadly li 
more or less ensiform, or narrowly lanceolate and sini) ii the M una 
of breadth to length varies from 1:10 to 1:90. There is, however, no lack of other 
forms, such as lanceolate, oblanceolate, ovate, obovate, elliptic, oblong, spathulate, 
etc. When the leaflets are comparatively broad toy ona -Gieu “solved on cas m ‘ 
and concave ix the in or are spoon-shaped, specially towards their apices: in a 
small group, that to which (€. rhomboideus | e 8 
aped belongs, they are more or less lozenge 
The leaflets almost always terminate in a symmetric, more or less acuminate and 
bristly-brushed tip; very often, however, we may observe here a small notch or 
indentation on the lower margin not very far from the apex; this notch in many 
In shape the leaflets vary a good deal. 
