250 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL’ BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [C. myriacanthus. 
flagella filiform, very .slender, with the lowest spathe flattened and acutely two-edged, 
sparsely aculeolate. Ocrea very short, truncate, glabrescent, smooth. Leaves not 
cirriferous, 60-90 cm. long; petiole (in leaves of the upper part of adult. plants) 
short or very short, broadly channelled above, armed at the sides with unequal 
spines, of which a few are long, straight and spreading, and beneath with short 
deflexed aculei; rachis smooth and acutely bifaced above, armed beneath along the 
middle with a line of solitary claws; leaflets numerous, equidistant, 15-25 mm, 
apart, thinly papyraceous, linear-ensiform, narrowed to the base, very gradually 
acuminate into a long subulate apex, which is bristly-spinulous at the sides, sub- 
shining and concolorous on both surfaces, unicostate, the mid-costa sparsely bristly- 
spinulous on both surfaces, but only near the summit; .side-nerves slender, always 
maked; margins finely and appressedly spinulous; transverse veinlets very distinct, 
much interrupted; the largest leaflets, those a little above the base, 18-25 om 
long, 10-12 mm. broad; the upper ones shorter but not narrower; the two of the 
terminal pair the smallest, quite free at the base.—Other parts unknown. 
Hasitat.—The Great Nicobar, whence it was sent to me in August 1886 by 
Mr. E. H. Man, who informed me that it is much used by the natives and that it 
is in great demand by ship-traders who take it to the Straits, and that it is called 
““Tehye” by the Nicobarese. | 
. . OssERVATIONS.—It appears to be allied to €. delicatulus, from which it is distin- 
guished by the leaflets spinulous on the mid-costa only. It seems allied also to 
C. Helferianus, but this has fascicled leaflets, while they are equidistant in C. nicobaricus. 
Its characteristics amongst the species of the group are its slenderness, the leaf- 
sheaths armed with rather broadly laminar, sometimes very long, elastic, entirely 
light-coloured spines; and the numerous equidistant, linear, subulately acuminate, unicos- 
tate leaflets, with only the mid-costa bristly-spinulous on both surfaces. 
PLATE 84.—Calamus nicoburicus Becc. Naked cane; two portions of the sheathed 
and leafy stem, one armed with long and the other with shorter, slender’ spines.— 
From Men's specimens in Herb. Becc. 
69. CALAMUS MYRIACANTHUS Becc, in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 214. 
Description.—Not scandent (?), rather robust. Sheathed stem about 4 cm. in diam. 
Leaf-sheaths not flagelliferous (always?) very thick and woody, not gibbous above 
and gradually passing into the petiole, open anticously longitudinally, with the remains 
(in adult leaves), on the margins, of the decayed ocrea, entirely covered with innu- 
merable, mostly small, short, solitary acicular horizontal spines which rest on a 
swollen base; other spines larger than the above, reddish-brown, 10— | 
sometimes confluent by their bases and also disposed in short horizonta 
on the lower part of the back, while near the mouth. and along the margins the 
spines are more crowded, longer and horizontal and of different nature, some of 
them being criniform and needle-like and others laminar and 2 cm, in lengtb. 
Leaves large, non-cirriferous, the only one seen by me 2:5 metres in length; the 
petiole robust, 60 cm. long and 12-13 mm. broad at the base, cli | d 
petiole — | annelled ver 
superficially and smooth above, convex beneath and armed only at the sides with end 
15 mm. long, 
l series, occur 
ecce £ 
