D. ramosissimus.] BECCARI. MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS CALAMUS, 993 
spines of very variable size, of which some oecasionally very short, especially those 
on the back below the insertion of the petiole, and others, by far more numerous, 
flat, narrow, subulate, elastic, 1-3 em. long, somewhat broadened and callous at the 
base, reddish-brown or spadiceous, spreading, horizontal or slightly deflexed, usually 
solitary or somewhat confluent into approximate oblique series; the spines on the 
ventral side and especially those near the mouth a good deal longer than the 
others, sometimes up to 5-10 cm. in length, erect, very slender and brittle. —Ocrea very 
long, up to 15 cm., membranous, exsuccous, chestnut-brown, brittle, not fibrous, 
ultimately falling to pieces covered when young with dark-brown furfuraceous 
removable scurf, unarmed or sometimes spinulous near its base. Leaves large, not 
cirriferous, 2-3 m. long; petiole stout, usually elongate (10-30 cm.), in the lowest 
part of the upper surface slightly channelled, then flattish, strongly and closely armed 
at the sides near the base with short or long, straight, robust spines, which have a 
broad and thick base and are transformed upwards into stout claws, these occasionally 
accompanied by other small and tuberculiform prickles; underneath the petiole is 
round, smooth, or even densely armed along the middle with straight semiconic 
spines, which are transformed upwards into stout reddish-brown dark-tipped, solitary 
or 2-3-nate claws and eztend to the very summit of the rachis; this in the lowest 
portion of the upper surface broadly channelled at the sides and with an obtuse 
mesial angle, acutely bifaced upwards; leaflets large and rather numerous (18-20 on 
each side), rather remote (5-8 cm. apart) subequidistant, never fascicled, often 
distinctly and somewhat irregularly (mainly towards the summit) opposite; the upper 
ones with a conspicuous axillary callus and transverse rime, rigid, papyraceous, more 
or less longitudinally plicate, shining above and very slightly paler beneath, where 
sometimes (in very young leaves?) covered with a fugacious and easily removable 
reddish powder, lanceolate, attenuate and acute at the base, gradually but shortly 
acuminate at the summit into a. bristly-spinulous tip, many-nerved or with a not 
strong mid-costa, acute and smooth in the upper surface, where accompanied on each 
side by 3-5 rather slender, also quite naked secondary nerves; beneath, the mid-costa 
slender, smooth or slightly bristly towards the summit and the side-nerves naked and 
somewhat stronger than on. the upper surface; transverse veinlets slender but distinct, 
crowded and rather continuous across the blade; margins very acute and naked except 
towards the summit, where they are ciliated with a few spreading approximate short 
bristles; the largest leaflets, the mesial, 30-40 and, in luxuriant specimens, even 50 cm. 
in length, 5-6 cm. in width; the upper pairs smaller and more apart; the two of 
the terminal pair free at the base, but very often the leaf terminates in 3 leaflets of 
which the mesial is somewhat narrower and slightly shorter than the next ones, 
Male spadiz ultra-decompound, not flagelliform, relatively short, rigid, erect, 30-40 
em, and in vigorous specimens even 1 m. in length, with a short, flat, acutely 
two-edged peduncle; primary spathes very long, at first very narrowly tubular and 
sheathing the inflorescences, the lower ones covering a good portion of those 
immediately above, very soon bursting longitudiually, and with the exception of a 
short basal tubular portion open, flattened into a persistent elongate limb, which is 
longer a good deal than their respective inflorescences, broadly linear, 15-20 mm. 
broad, acuminate, thinly coriaceous, exsuccous, unarmed, opaque, finely striate 
longitudinally and thinly rusty-furfuraceous outside, almost shining and of a cinnamon 
colour inside; the lowest, flat, sheathing and acutely two-edged at the base, the edge 
