THE SPIKELETs. 21 
Owing to this bifarious arrangement, the flowers when very close together and 
disposed in the same plane, render the spikelets comb-like or pectinate. Not infrequently, 
_ however, both series of flowers are more or less assurgent and point upwards so that 
the spikelets acquire a scorpioid tendency, as for example in 4€. Gambie, and 
€. Huegelianus and in most of the species of the groups to which C. ezilis and 
C. heteracanthus belong. 
In & few instances the disposition of the flowers is not clearly evident, In 
C. gonospermus, for example, it is not easy to make out whether the spadix is 
composed of short spikelets with closely packed glomerulate flowers or of contracted 
partial inflorescences in which what appear to be glomerules of flowers are contracted 
spikelets. In C. .Lobbianus also the spikelets are short and dense and their original 
structure, especially when they are laden with fruits, is difficult to recognise. 
With the single exception of C, polystachys only one spikelet, in all the known 
species of Calamus, arises from every secondary spathe. In C. polystachys, however, 
in the lower part of the inflorescences there are 2-3 spikelets in the axil of each 
secondary spathe, though towards the top the spikelets are solitary. 
As a general rule the lower spikelets in every partial inflorescence are larger 
than the upper ones; these gradually diminish in size and number of flowers, the 
‘uppermost being the smallest. 
. Most usually the spikelets are inserted at or near slightly above or inside the 
mouth of the corresponding spathe; but in some species, for instance in all those 
belonging to the groups of C. castaneus, C. zeylanicus and €. Zollingerii they are 
attached to their base by means of a pedicellar part as long as the spathe from 
which the spikelet emerges (Prate II, fig. 2). If the spikelets be pedicellate even 
the flowers, as will be seen presently, are borne on pedicellate involucres, 
The appendicular organs of the spikelets which are spathes of a reduced or 
diminished nature are termed “spathels.” Even when the primary and secondary 
spathes are prickly the spathels are always unarmed; the only exception known to me 
is in the var. insularis of C, paspalanthus, where the spathels are provided with one 
or two diminutive claws; usually however when the secondary spathes are scabrid, a 
similar scabridity is present on the spathels and even on the involucres, 
The various appendicular organs of the spikelets are of much diagnostic impor- 
tance, but it is not always easy to establish their nomenclature; and to be certain 
of their exact morphological nature it is essential first to know the sex of the 
spikelets because the appendicular organs or involucra of the flowers are not the same 
in the male and female spikelets. 
Male Spikelets—The male spikelets of Calamé are of simpler structure than the 
female ones, since the flowers in the first have only one proper involucre (PLATE I, 
figs. 1-3) while in the second the involucre is double (Prate I, figs. 8-12), 
moreover, the male spikelets have only one kind of flower, and the flowers with 
their involucres are solitary in the axil of every spathel (Puare I, figs. 1-3), while 
the female spikelets have always at least two flowers to each spathel (Prate 1, 
fig. 10) of which one is female, the other is more male than female, but is „sterile 
-and speedily deciduous, ig eye 
