€. Blumei.) BECCARI. MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS CALAMUS. ` 341 
Description.—Siem . . . . . Leaf-sheaths , . . . . Leaves (only the upper 
portion of one seen by me) with the rachis scurfy-furfuraceous, rather convex beneath, 
where strongly armed at distances of 1-3 cm. with dark-pointed light-based acute 
claws, naked and not very acutely bifaced in the upper face, prolonged beyond the 
two ultimate leaflets into a small, 2 em. long, clawed rigid appendix; leaflets few on 
each side, alternate or subopposite, 7-9 cm. apart, 18-18 cm. long, 7-8 cm. broad, 
the two of the terminal pair being the smailest, firm in texture, thinly coriaceous, 
glabfous subshining above, barely paler beneath, broadly rhomboid-ovate, almost equally 
narrowed to both ends, cuneately attenuated, somewhat asymmetric, acute and 
distinctly stalked or ansate at the base, where acutely keeled above, suddenly con- 
tracted at the apex into a tail-like, very narrow, 12-15 mm, long, bristly-ciliate tip; 
flabellate or radiately plicate, with 5-7 main costae almost equally prominent on both 
surfaces and radiately divergent from the base, of which only the mesial which is 
somewhat eccentric and slightly stronger than the others, reaches the summit and the 
side ones arch near the margins and evanesce at different levels; secondary nerves 
slender and like the primary ones naked on both surfaces; transverse veinlets 
numerous, crowded and continuous and almost parallel across the entire blade; 
margins faintly undulate, slightly furfuraceous, ciliate only at the summit. 
HasrrAT.—Blume assigns Borneo as the native country of this species, and as 
it is stated that it was collected there by Korthals, it probably comes from the 
banks of the River Dugson. Blume gives also the indigenous name of ‘“ Tantuwu.” 
But as some mixtures have apparently taken place amongst the specimens from 
which Blume derived the description of his C, rhomboideus, the home of C, Blumei 
remains up to the present somewhat uncertain. 
OnsEnvATIONS.— C, Blumei differs from rhomboideus in the rachis covered with a 
brown scurf (not tomentose), much more strongly clawed and more distinctly bifaced 
above, and in the leaflets which are smaller, firmer in texture, distinctly ansate and 
more asymmetric at the base and with fewer costae (5-7 instead of 9-12); the 
mid-costa also is eccentric and stronger than the other nerves, while in €. rhom- 
boideus the costae are all of almost the same strength. 
€. Blumei approaches the var. korthalsiaefolius of C. tomentosus more closely than 
it does OC. rhomboideus. 
The specimen of ©. Biumei that I have seen is labelled in the Leyden 
Herbarium by Blume ‘Calamus rhomboideus Bl. var. rigida: Borneo, Korthals" and 
consists of the terminal portion of a leaf and a partial inflorescence of a female 
spadix stripped of its flowers or fruit; all these parts are attached to the same 
sheet of paper. -I have further received from the late Dr. Boerlage some detached 
fruits which apparently belong to the inflorescence mentioned above and which 
corrrespond to the description given by Blume of the fruit of C. rhomboideus, But 
it is quite certain that the fruits and the inflorescence described by Blume as part 
belonging to his (. rhomboideus are those of a quite different species, probably of 
C. Scipionum or of a very nearly allied species, as I have already stated in my 
observations on C. rAomboideus, From the foregoing facts it appears that, as far as 
1 can judge, Blume founded his variety of C. rhomboideus on the leaves of one 
