30 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
In. a few species, like C.  /rispermus and C, manillensis there are three fairly 
equally developed seeds in each fruit; C. Burckanus also has as a rule three seeds, 
but occasionally only one developes fully and only a conspicuous rudiment of each 
of the two others remains. When there are three seeds they are convex externally 
and have two flat facets which meet at a central obtuse angle. In C. Huegelianug 
and C., digitatus there are occasionally two seeds and then they are plano-convex. 
Excluding these few exceptions, the fruit of Calamus as a rule contains only 
one seed, and the remains of the other two are absorbed; this seed is commonly 
globular or ovoid or even slightly flattened and sublenticular ; exceptionally it is very 
irregularly shaped and angular as in C.. paspalanthus, C. gonospermus and C, ornatue. 
The seed of Calamus is always- erect in the fruit, and even when it is flattened 
or lenticular its longer axis is the vertical one. 
In most seeds of Calami it is possible to distinguish a dorsal and a ventral side, 
the dorsal being usually convex, while the ventral has generally in the centre a 
circular or elliptic’ depression (Prate 230, figs. 16, 18, and 19) termed the “chalazal 
fovea,” which in the seeds of several species is represented by a longitudinal 
furrow or even by a small inconspicuous rib. The exact situation of the chalazal 
fovea, though sometimes only faintly indicated, is always distinguishable evon 
when the seed is globular. 
The surface of the seed is rarely, as in ©. paspalanthus, quite smooth ; iaost 
frequently itis marked by small impressions, pits or alveoli, and furrows with corre- 
sponding ridges, wrinkles, small tubercles, and similar irregularities; these ridges and 
furrows often radiate from the chalazal fovea. à 
The proper integument of the seed, as has already been noted, contains at 
times tannie substances, and this is usually the case when the surface of the seed 
is irregular and especially when it is pitted and the integument penetrates more or 
less into the substance of the albumen. When the intrusions of the integument are 
superficial, the albumen cannot be considered ruminated, but in not a few cases 
the depressions on the surface of the seed are very deep, and sometimes these are 
developed into true narrow channels so that the albumen is rendered typically 
ruminate. This is a condition that obtains in the seeds of species of the allied genus 
Daemonorops ; in this latter genus, however, a reminated seed is the rule, whereas in 
Calamus it is the exception; in both cases the channels are filled with a brown 
astringent tannic substance. 
In the integument of the seed of C. Flagellum, when dry, I have observed 
numerous oblong or fusiform small bodies of a garnet-red colour visible even to 
the naked eye, but of course much more obvious with the aid of a lens; these 
bodies seem to be mucilaginous masses infiltrated with tannic acid, which fll corre. 
sponding lysigenetic cavities of the integument. The rumination of the seeds of C. 
cilaris, C. ezilis and allied species is of a very special nature. In these the seed 
is deeply and boldly plicate and. has a cerebroid appearance ; the integument is very 
thin, penetrates into the folds, many of which radiate from the chalazal fovea, and 
is formed of a few layers of parenchymatous cells filled - with very small green 
corpuscles partly soluble in water, to which they impart their colour and a very 
