230 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [C- australis 
OBSERVATIONS.—AÀ very well marked species by the leaf-sheaths armed with 
flattened short broad fringed spines, equidistant subtricostulate ensiform leaflets and 
especially by the extraordinarily long and slender spadices with very small male and 
female flowers and very small round fruit not larger than a pea.—In drying the 
leaves acquire a chestnut-brown. colour. 
A specimen in the Calcutta Herbarium collected by Lobb, probably in Sarawak, 
apparently belongs to this species and bears the note: “ Stem 3 to 4 feet; wet 
forests.” This specimen agrees pretty well with my number 2760, but its leaf is 
more contracted and the spadix more robust. 
Prate 71.—Calamus aematospadix Bece. Portion of the stem with the base of a 
leaf and of a spadix (on the left upper corner of the plate); another portion of a 
stem with an entire male spadix; the upper part of a leaf (lower surface); portion 
of a fruit-spadix (on the left side) with an entire partial inflorescence; detached 
fruits and seeds; cne of these longitudinally cut across the embryo.—From P. B. 
Nos, 1000, 2760, 1927 in Herb. Becc. 
56, CALAMUS AUSTRALIS Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. iii, 213 (ist edit.) and 342.; 
Kunth Enum. Pl. iii, 212; Walp. Ann. iiij 491 and v, 832.; H. Wendl. 
and Drade in Linnea, xxxix, (1875), 197; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii 134.—F. 
von Muell. Syst. Cens. Austr. Pl. 119; H. Wendl. in Kerch. Les 
Palm., 235; Becc, Malesia, i, 88. 
C. obstruens F. v. Muell, Fragm. v, 48; Bailey Queensl. Fl. 1685, 
C. Jaboolum Bailey, Bot. Bull. xiii (non vidi), and Queensl. Fl. 1686. 
DESCRIPTION. —High scandent, rather slender or of moderate size. Sheathed stem 
about 15 mm, in diam, Leaf-sheaths flagelliferous, not gibbous above, obliquely 
truncate at the mouth, covered when young, as are the petiole and rachis of the 
leaves and the spathes, with a rusty-grey detachable cottony indumentum and 
entirely clothed with very slender, brittle, flexible blackish or fuscescent, spreading, 
1-2 cm. long, criniform spieule, which are denser and erect at the mouth, Leaf- 
sheath flagella with the basal spathe flattened, two-edged and furnished at the sides 
with long spicule. Leaves not cirriferous, rather short, about 60 cm. in length; 
the petiole short, 4-5 cm, long, convex beneath, where almost unarmed or more or 
less furnished with small claws, flattish above, where more or less densely covered 
with spiculz like thore of the leaf-sheaths; rachis bifaced and smooth above, roundish 
in the first portion, flat upwards, and irregularly armed throughout beneath along 
the middle and in the lower portion, also at the sides with rather small solitary or 
slightly aggregate claws; leaflets not very numerous, 10-18 on each side, alternate 
or almost opposite, 2-5 cm. apart, subequidistant, papyraceous, rigidulous, shining, 
somewhat  plicate longitudinally, subconcolorous and destitute of hairs spinules or 
bristles on both surfaces, lanceolate or nurrowly lanceolate, rather suddenly contracted 
at their insertion on the rachis, where often distinctly callous mainly iu the lower 
leaflets, gradually acuminate into a subulate not bristly or ciliate apex, more of 
less deeply indented on the lower margin near the summit and terminating in a 
long (2-3 cm.) very slender, brittle and deciduous thread; all the leaflets are of 
