44 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, 
The leading difference between a Calamus and a Daemonorops is’ of a biological 
character and resides essentially in the function subserved by their spadices or 
spathes; these organs in fact are so modified as either to be of some assistance to 
the plant in climbing, or, when this is not the case, the spadices appear to be direct 
morphological derivates, and the function of assisting the plant to climb is then 
subserved by the leaf cirri. 
In Daemonorops the spadices never serve as climbing organs and their spathes, 
from the very first, are utilized to enclose and protect the flowers, being besides 
always short in comparison with those of a Calamus. 
In Calamus the spathes, even in spadices that are not cirriferous at their summits 
and that are comparatively short, are elongate and persistent, at least in their basal 
part which is always tubular; they are also, like the spiral part of the spadix, more 
or less armed with hooked prickles—the kind of spines that aid the plant to climb. 
If, as sometimes happens, the spathes of Calamus are not tubular but are open, 
flat, and laminar, the axis of the spadix is nevertheless elongate and more or less 
armed with claws, at least at its apex. 
In Daemonorops all the spathes, with the exception in some cases of the basilar 
one, are deciduous, usually broad and open thoughout their entire ventral aspect and, 
more especially, are never armed with hooked prickles; they have therefore no 
organs at all to assist the plant in climbing; moreover, the axis of the spadix, which 
is usually short, never bears claws and never shows any tendency to become 
flagelliform. | 
Among the species of Calamus I know only O. hypoleucus, a very anomalous 
Palm, which hes short spadices and broad cymbiform unarmed spathes, a good deal 
resembling those of a Daemonorops. C. Lobbianus, O. conirostris and C. brachystachys 
have also spathes somewhat resembling those of a Daemonorops, but in these species, 
which also form a group standing alone in the genus, the structure of the spikelets 
and flowers is that of true Calami. In fact, the spikelets of Calamus, especially the 
female ones, are somewhat different from those of Daemonorops; in these the 
spathels are less developed and generally are reduced to a mere scale or to a short 
membranous ring, and the involucrophore is elongate and stout so that usually the 
fruit of a Daemonorops appears distincly stalked. Moreover, female flowers of 
Calamus are distinguishable at a glance from those of Daemonorops : in the former 
genus they have the calyx distinctly 3-toothed or 3-lobed and the corolla hardly longer 
than the calyx: in the latter, as a general rule, the calyx is almost truncate at the 
mouth and the corolla is conspicuously longer than the calyx. 
The fruit in the two genera-is very similar, but a fruit with a seed in which 
the albumen is homogeneous can never be that of Daemonorops, though there are not 
a few Calami with a ruminated seed such as, without a single exception, we find in 
Daemonorops. | 
No Daemonorops ever bears leaf sheath flagella, nor are its leaves paripinnate 
towards the apex, which is always cirriferous. | 
Therefore a climbing Palm which has flageliferous leaf sheaths, flagelliferons 
. spadices, leave paripinnate to the apex, homogeneous seeds and tubular spathes never 
