162 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. (C. Schweinfurthii 
19, CALAMUS AKIMENSIS Becc.: sp. n. 
DEscRIPTigy.—Apparently scandent. Siem . ` . . . Leafsheaths . . . .. 
Leaves . . . . . Female spadiz: partial inflorescences rather large, in one specimen 
50 em. in length, elongate-pyramidal in outline, with 15 gradually shortening 
spikelets 'on each side; secondary spathes infundibuliform, usually split longitudinally 
in their} upper part and prolonged at one side into a rather elongate-triangular acu- 
minate point; spikelets thick, vermicular, inserted near the mouth, but inside their own 
spathe ; the lower ones, the largest, 15 cm. long with about 25 flowers on each side, 
slightly sinuous; the upper ones gradually shorter and with fewer flowers, strongly 
arched; those near the apex 7-8 cm. long with 7-8 flowers only on each side; 
spathels finely striately veined, very broadly and obliquely infundibuliform, extended 
at one side into a broad triangular point; involucrophorum cupular, bi-dentate and 
acutely two-keeled on the side next to the axis, inserted at the bottom of its owr 
spathel and entirely included in this; involucre entire, subauriculiform or obliquely 
cupular, viz. more elongate on the side of the neuter flower of which the areola 
is very distinct, vertically elougate and with a very acute margin. Female flowers about’ 
5 mm. long. Fruiting perianth split and explanate under the fruit; the segments of the 
corolla lanceolate, acuminate, about as long as the lobes of the calyx and slightly 
narrower than these. Fruit conically ovoid from a round base or gradually tapering 
towards the apex into a conic and rather thick beak, about 2 cm, long and 1 cm. 
broad; scales in 15 series, shining, broadly and not deeply channelled along the 
middle, light-brown with a rusty-red irregularly fringed margin, and an acute point. 
Seed narrowly oblong, round at the base, somewhat apiculate at the apex, li mm. 
long, 6 mm. thick, coarsely, irregularly and superficially grooved on the surface, 
its chalazal fovea elongate on the centre of the raphal side; albumen equable; embryo 
basal. l | 
HanrraT.—Discovered in December 1899 by W. H, Johnson at Kibbi in the Akim 
district of the Gold Coast (Herb. Kew). 
OssERvATIONS.— Of this species nothing is known beyond the partial inflorescence 
with mature fruit described above. Closely related to C. deerratus, but distinct by its 
larger partial inflorescences with numerous spikelers, which are also larger with 
broader or more spathaceous spathels. The fruit is longer or more grad ually narrowed 
into a conic beak and with the scales in 15 series (in €. deerratus they are in 21) 
with the margins coarsely and irregularly (not very finely) fringed. By its subspatha- 
ceous spathels it resembles also C. Perrottetii a good deal, ia 
Prate 25A.— Calamus akimensis Becc. The entire type-specimen in Herb. Kew. 
20. CALAMUS SCHWEINFURTHII Becc. in Ree. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii. 200. T 
C. secundiflorus (not of Beauv.) Schweinf. Beitr, Fl. Aethiopiens, 291; Drude 
in Englers Bot. Jahrb. xxi. 131 (1896). 
Description.—Scandent, slender.  Sheathed stem 10-15 mm. in diam. Leaf-sheaths 
elongate, cylindrical , armed with small, scattered, solitary, deflexed, flat, laminar 
subulate, blackish, shining spines, which rest on a small, tubereuliform, light base ud 
are about 1 cm. in length. crea liguliform, 2-3 cm. long, prolonged externally and 
