26 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
exceptions to this rule see the preceding section under the heading “Female 
Spikelets. ” 
Male Flowers.—The flowers of both sexes in Calamus are small and unobtrusive. 
The male flowers are most frequently larger and more elongated than the female 
ones, but even the largest, as in C. erectus, C. longisetus, C. arborescens, | C. Flagellum, 
€. Thwaitesii, etc., rarely exceed 1 cm. in length; they are green or yellowish and 
are always of a coriaceous or pergamentaceous texture. 
The calyx of the male flower is shortly tubular, cupular or urceolate, and is 
always more or less deeply 3-toothed or 3-lobed (PrarE I, fig. 4). The corolla is 
always considerably longer than the calyx, and is divided almost to the base into 
3 narrow segments (PrarE I, figs, 4 and 5). The stamens are 6 in number and 
most frequently are uniseriate, and have subulate filaments with a more or less 
distinctly inflexed apex. In C. pachystemonus and allied species the stamens are 
distinetly 2-seriate, tbree of them being, moreover, shorter than the other three, while 
their filaments are not inflexed at the tip, so that the anthers in bud as well as 
during flowering are erect and  basifixed. When the filaments are inflexed the 
anthers are versatile and deeply divided at the base (Puare I, fig. 17, and Prarx II, 
fig. 5). In all the male flowers that I have examined I have always found a 
rudimentary ovary composed of 3 small elongated bodies or rudimentary carpels 
(Prate I, fig. 0», and Prare II, fig. 5s). I have never met with the faintest sign of 
a nectary in the interior of a male flower. 
Female Flowers.—'lhe female flowers are usually shorter and stouter than the 
male ones and are ovate or conic in shape; their calyx is cupular—urceolate or 
subcampanulate and always more or less deeply 3-toothed or 3-lobed ( Prare II, figs. 
6-11). The corolla is always more deeply partite than the calyx, but its divisions 
very seldom exceed the teeth of the calyx; in a very few cases, as for instance 
in €, javensis, the corolla of the female flower is, conspicuously longer, and in 
C. adspersus is slightly shorter than the calyx. 
The stamens of the female flower are six in number and are always sterile; 
the bases of their filaments are slightly connate to form a cup or urceole which 
envelopes the ovary and is crowned by 6 more or less elongated teeth; these teeth 
bear sagittate basifixed but abortive anthers (PrarE II, fig. 11). 
. The ovary is globular, ovate-conic or even turbinate, and does not differ 
essentially from that of the other Lepidocaryew, of which the chief characteristic is 
a “lorica” formed of  imbricated scales (Prare II, fig. IL). The ovary is: 
trilocular, with the 3 cells separated by very thin dissepimeuts; each cell has a 
solitary ovule which is anatropous, basilar, and inserted on the inner angle of the cell. - 
Most usually only one of the ovules grows to maturity, and of the others only the 
remains may be traced in fertilised ovaries. Perhaps the dissepiments of the cells 
are frequently incomplete from the first formation of the ovary. and the three ovules 
stand erect in the centre ofthe ovary ; this at all events is what hasseemed to me to 
be the case in dry specimens of C. Zollingerii, | 
i 
The style is usually very short and comparatively stout; the stigmas are 3 
im number and are usually rather stout, elongate-trigonous, acuminate or subulate. 
y 
