28 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
XVI.—The Fruiting Perianth. 
In all the species of Calamus the perianth formed by the calyx and corolla is 
persistent till the fruit reaches maturity, and usually it is unaltered or at most 
slightly hardened, 
The fruiting perianth affords a good diagnostic character, as in some species the 
calyx and corolla are split to the base and their segments remain spread under the 
fruit where they form a kind of six-rayed star. In many other species the tube of 
the calyx is more or less cylindric, hardens a little after the fertilisation of the 
ovary, becomes callous and even sometimes slightly swollen at the base and as a 
whole gives rise te a kind of stalk or pedicel to the fruit. 
Whether the fruiting perianth be expianate or pedicelliform, we may always, 
owing to its different parts remaining unaltered, recognise from it the structure and 
the size of the female flowers. 
When the fruiting perianth is pedicelliform the fruit is usually provided at 
its base with a small caudicle penetrating into the cavity of the perianth. 
XVII—The Fruit. 
The fruit of Calamus does not essentially differ from that of the other 
Lepidocaryeae It has by Martius been termed loricate or mail-clad, on account of 
its pericarp which, owing to its being composed of numerous, regularly arranged, 
thin, resistent, retrorse scales, forms a kind of plated armour for the seed. This 
Structure is unique in the vegetable kingdom. 
The fruit of Calamus is more or less globular, ovoid, ellipsoid, oblong, conical- 
ovoid or even slightly turbinate; it is always comparatively small, and varies from 
4-5 mm. in length in ©. microsphaerion, C. siphonospathus, C. microcarpus, etC., 
to 4 em in C, erectus. Among species that possess a large fruit may be men- 
tioned — C. Flagellum, ©.  khasianus, C. nambariensis, C. Manan, C. simplez, 
C. ornatus, etc. 
The fruit of Calamus remains the same in the dry as in the fresh condition, but 
on account of the scaly nature of the pericarp it varies somewhat in size according 
to its degree of maturity, inasmuch in the fresh fruit the seed is often 
enveloped in a fleshy integument, which when the seed is mature exerts a degree of 
pressure against the pericarp that causes an expansion of this, which is comparable 
to the expansion of the skin of a snake when its body is distended with food. 
And, in reality, the hard scales of the pericarp in a Calamus fruit are joined 
together by an elastic and extensible tissue exactly as the scales of the skin of 
a snake are, 
The scales of the fruit of. Calamus afford good diagnostic characters by their 
shape, their colour, the peculiarities of their surface and margin, their number and 
their disposition, Martius has discussed the phyllotaxis: of the scales of the fruit of 
vertical rows, termed * orthostichies,” according to , which th | 
: ey are apparent! 
arranged round the fruit. The smallest number of these vertical rows observed 
