C. Rotang.] BECCARI. MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS CALAMUS. eg 
approximate, subtrigonous-ovate, acute, 3'ó mm. long; the calyx cylindraceous, smooth 
and callous at the base, very finely striately veined, divided down not quite to the 
middle into 3 triangular acute lobes; corolla twice as long as the calyx, divided to 
a little above the base into 3  ovate-lanceolate apiculate finely striate Segments ; 
stamens with the filaments connate by their bases to the tubular portion of the corolla, 
then free and subulate with the apices inflected when in the bud; anthers elongate- 
sagittate; rudimentary ovary formed by 2 subulate bodies, which reach a little 
above the bases of the anthers. Female spadiz flagelliform, simply decompound, 
terminating in a more or less elongate aculeolate flagellum; primary and secondary 
spathes like those in the male spadix; partial inflorescences arising erect from inside 
their own spathe, then arched, short, the larger ones usually 15-20 cm. long with 5-8 
spikelets ou each side and a terminal one; spikelets alternately distichous, slender, 
15-29 mm. apart on each side, strongly arched or subscorpioid, attached just at 
the mouth of their own spathe with a distinct axillary callus; the larger ones 3-5 
em. long with 5-7 rather remote flowers on each side, the upper ones somewhat 
shorter; spathels tubular-cylindraceous at the base, more or less infundibuliform in 
their upper part, truncate, finely striately veined, apiculate at one side; involucro- 
phorum sub-cupular, sessile, almost completely exsert from its own spathel and laterally 
attached to the base of the one above; involucre shallowly cupular with a somewhat 
irregular and obsoletely toothed margin; areola of the neuter flower depressedly 
lunate. Female flowers small, conic-ovoid, 2:5-3 mm. long; the calyx callous and 
smooth at the base, strongly striately veined on the tube, shortly 3-toothed; the 
corolla scarcely longer than the calyx, its segments ovate-acute; the stamens with 
the filaments united by their bases and with rather large sterile anthers; these deeply 
sagittate at the base, obtuse at the summit, Neuter flower conspicuous, divaricate, only 
slightly smaller than the fertile ones. Fruiting períanth shortly but distinctly pedi- 
celliform. Fruit globose or slightly longer than broad, 12-13 mm. broad, 13-15 
mm. long, shortly and minutely apiculate; scales in 21 series, rhomboid, almost as — 
long as wide, of a light straw colour, shining, faintly or very faintly channelled along 
the middle, with a rather short and obtuse reddish-brown point; the margins finely 
erosely toothed, pale or with a not very distinct darker intramarginal line. Seed 
with the integument fleshy when fresh, very thinly crustaceous when dry, orbicular 
compressed, somewhat convex, irregularly pitted and tubercled on the back, radiately 
grooved from a central rather large circular chalazal fovea on the raphal side;. 
albumen equable; embryo basal, 
Hasitat.—Common in the hottest parts of the Island of Ceylon, Thwaites C. P 
No. 3388; and in the southern districts of the Indian peninsula, from whence I have 
seen specimens collected on the Coromandel coast at Madras, Wight in Herb. Kew; 
in the districts of Nellore, Chingleput and Kurnool, Gamble, and at Courtallum, 
Wight No. 2757 in H. Kew. Roxburgh assigns also the locality Bengal, but from 
there I have seen no specimens. The common Rattan. Vernacular names : “ Bet" 
and ‘‘Chachi Bet” Beng. Ind.; “Pepa” and *''Prabba," Central Provinces (Gamble). 
OBSERVATIONS.—The name of C. Rotang has been given by Linneus to a Calamus 
collected by Burmann in Ceylon, of which I have seen some instructive fragments 
in the Herbarium Delessert at Geneva. Therefore though €, Rotang be common 
