140 ! ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. (C. rudentum 
Description.—Scandent. Stem very long and robust. Leaf-sheaíhs not seen, but very 
probably flagelliferous. Leaves very large, non-cirriferous; petiole . . . . .; rachis 
trigonous in the mesial and upper portion, with acute and smooth angles and two flat 
side-faces above, flat and armed beneath with solitary, rather strong, straight, slightly 
defiexed spines, which rest on a swollen base; leaflets numerous, equidistant, alternate, 
very long, linear-ensiform, the largest 65 cm. in length by 15-18 mm. in breadth, 
stifily papyraceous, plicate along the secondary nerves, shining and green on both 
surfaces, narrowed to the base, gradually acuminate towards the apex which is 
acute in the lower leaflets and obtuse acutely keeled above and bristly penicillate at 
the apex in the upper ones; the mid-rib acute and spinulous towards the apex. 
above, and from the middle upwards furnished below with some very long (1-2 
cm.) spadiceous bristles; secondary nerves few, slender, naked on both surfaces ; 
margins acute, bearing short adpressed spinules 10-12 mm. apart, closer, longer and. 
more spreading upwards; transverse veinlets very crowded, rather sharp and 
frequently anastomosing; the two apical leaflets smaller than the others and 
shortly connate at the base. Male spadiz ultradecompound, flagelliform, excessive- 
ly long; the one measured, though without its basal portion, 3°5 m. in length and 
further lengthened out into an apical flagellum measuring. another metre; the 
vacant spaces between two inflorescences very long, and armed (as is the flagel- 
lum) with half-whorls of stout black-tipped claws resting on broad and confluent 
bases; partial inflorescences rather many (6 in the spadix mentioned above), 
the uppermost rudimentary, the lowest, the largest, 60 cm. long, twice branched 
near the base and with single spikelets in the upper portion; primary spathes 
. Cylindrical, very long tubular, closely sheathing, often ultimately split longitudi- 
nally, strongly clawed especially in their lower portion, terminating in a lanceolate 
sparsely aculeate limb which is not lacerated, but often at length decayed and 
partially deciduous at the summit; secondary spathes finely furfuraceous, unarmed or 
sparingly spiny-tuberculose, 15-20 mm, long, tubular, slightly enlarged above, 
truncate, entire and not ciliate at the mouth where lengthened on one side into a 
short triangular acute point; male spikelets reddish-brown when dry, attached imme- 
diately above the mouth of their own spathe, spreading or recurved, flattened, 7-11 
em. long with 420-30 bifarious contiguous flowers on each side, inserted at an angle 
of about 459; spsthels finely furfuraceous, short, broadly and asymmetrically infun- 
dibuliform, truneate and entire at ihe mouth, shortly apiculate at one side; involucre 
slightly longer than its own spathel and attached to the base of the one above, 
like a swallow’s nest or dimidiatel y cupular, obliquely truncate, emarginate, two-keeled 
and two-toothed on the side next to the axis, Male [flowers 6 mm. long, elongate- 
ovoid, obtusely trigonous, somewhat attenuated at the apex; calyx campanulate, striate- 
ly-nerved, with three broad apiculate lobes; corolla twice as long at the calyx, divided 
down to the base into three lanceolate rather obtuse segments; stamens with filament 
nearly free at the. base, subulate and slightly inflected at the apex; anthers linear 
with their cells discrete from above the middle; rudimentary ovary very: small, 
formed by three narrow scales not quite 1 mm, long. Female spadiz simply decompound, 
with very elongate partial inflorescences, of which the largest, the lowest, is 1 m. in 
length, with 10-12 spikelets on each side; the upper 40-50 cm. long, with fewer 
spikelets; secondary spathes a little longer than in the male spadix, 2:5-3-5 cm. loug, 
