g. pseudo-tenuis] BECCARI. MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS CALAMUS, 993 
and attenuated parts of the spadix between two partial inflorescences plano- 
convex or nearly concavo-convex in section at their base, rather strongly clawed 
on the convex or dorsal side; partial inflorescences relatively slender, very 
long, some of them one metre in length, with 10-12 spikelets on each side 
and terminated by a short (5-6 cm. long) unarmed and slender tail; secondary 
spathes tubular, slightly enlarged above, smooth or hardly  spinulous, slightly 
obliquely truncate at the mouth and shortly produced at one side into a broad 
triangular apiculate point; spikelets more or less arched and recurved, inserted just 
at the mouth of their own spathe; the lowest 8-10 cm. long with 18-20 distich- 
ous flowers on each side; the upper ones not very much smaller; spathels short, 
broadly asymmetrically infundibuliform, produced at one side into a short and not 
very acute tip; involucrophorum short, dimidiately cupular or shaped like a swallow's 
nest, laterally adnate to the base of the spathel which is above its own; invo: 
luere cupular, truncate, faintly undulated or toothed on the margin; areola of the 
neuter flower depressedly lunate, sharply defined. Female flowers small (about 3 mm, 
long). Fruiting perianth not pedicelliform, the calyx parted down to the base 
into three lobes with its base acute and immersed in the involucre; the corolla 
as long as the calyx, but with narrower lobes; spathels, iuvolucres and flowers 
rusty-furfuraceous. Fruit small, ovate, rounded at both ends, very suddenly  con- 
tracted into a cylindric mucro which is 2 mm. long, on the whole 14-15 mm. long 
and 9 mm. broad; scales in 21 series, pale-yellowish, subshining, faintly channelled 
along the middle, usually of only one colour with short tip and . paler obscurely 
erosely toothed margin. Seed ovate-globose, 8 mm. long, 6 mm. broad and 5 mm. 
thick, flattish on the raphal side, with a shallow chalazal fovea, coarsely pitted 
on the back; albumen equable; embryo almost basal or slightly lateral. 
Hasitat.—The Nicobar Islands, where it was discovered by Mr. E. H. Man. The 
specimens were sent to me in August 1888 with the native name *'Pentong," which 
name, however, I find applied also to other species. 
OBSERVATIONS.—I have ventured to base the description of this species on the 
female spadix only owing to its great affinity with €. rivalis from which it differs in 
the much larger size of the spadix and in the scales of the fruit being entirely of 
one colour, ‘lhe affinities of this species with C. rivalis is another proof of the simi- 
larity of the flora of Ceylon with that of the archipelagoes in the Bay of 
Bengal. ; 
Puate 68,—Calamus pseudo-rivalis Bece. Lower portion of the fruit-spadix with 
two entire partial inflorescences; seeds, one longitudinally cut through the embryo. 
(From Man’s specimen in Herb, Becc.) 
53. CALAMUS PsEUDO-TENUIS Bece. in Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 445, and 
in Rec. Bot. Surv, Ind. ii, 204. 
C. tenuis (not of Roxb.), Thw. Enum. Pl. Zeyl. 330 (excl. syn.). 
` Descrirption.—Slender, scandent. Sheathed stem as thick as a finger. Leafe 
sheaths sometimes. flagelliferous, armed with variable spines, which are occasionally 
very short and almost tuberculiform or as much as 2 cm. in length, flat-subulate, 
