374 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [@, Seipionum. 
Billiton I have a specimen collected there by Riedel. In Borneo it has been 
found by Low, probably in Sarawak (Herb. Kew.), but it must be very scarce there, 
as I have never met it. Dr. Treub forwarded me some splendid specimens made 
from plants grown at Buitenzorg from seeds gathered by Mr. Strichman on the West 
Coast of Borneo. It mainly grows in damp forests near the sea. In the 
Malayan Peninsula it receives the name of “Rotang Semanbu” (Scoríechini); iu 
Billiton of * R. Simanbo” (Riedel); in Borneo of * R. Marow” (Low). 
This species supplies the well-known commercial Malacca canes brought to the 
markets of Singapore and Pinang in pieces of the length of about 1°8 m. and 
consisting of only 3 joints or nodes with only an entire very long internode. The 
longest internode I have seen is preserved in the Botanical Museum at Florence, 
and is 88 cm. in length. The diameter of the canes is very variable, some 
being as thick as a man’s littie finger and others attaining 3 cm. in diam. I 
have not seen leafy specimens of the thinner canes, but I can scarcely doubt 
their belonging to the same species as the larger ones. The Rotang of C. Seipionum 
is valued only for the sticks and handles it produces, and is not employed for other 
purposes. : ! 
OnsERVATIONS.— The leaves in C. Sctpionum cannot be called subcirriferous, but 
they approach this kind of termination, as the leaflets near the summit are very 
much reduced in size and the last one is often rudimentary, while the rachis is 
more or less, never however very powerfully, clawed, 
This name of O. Scipionum has been given by Loureiro to the plant producing 
the well-known commercial Malacca canes, and only through them has it been possible 
to recognize this species, the description left of it by its author not serving as a 
sure means of identification. 
Griffith had known this Calamus, as it is easily recognized in the short but 
characteristic description of the Calamus from Ching, but Griffith never assigned a 
specific name to ii. As far as I know no other Palm produces such long internodes 
as those of this Calamus, but perhaps these are not of such extraordinary length 
throughout the entire plant, and the very long ones are produced only near the base 
of the plant, when this is at a maximum of its vigour. 
The leaflets figured by Blume in the plate 191 of the “Rumphia” with the 
name of C. micranthus are very seemingly those of C. scipionum; and the same may 
be said for those represented in the plate 144, f. A. B. C. as those of Daemonorops 
físsus. 
C. Seipionum seems a very variable species, and to the comprehensive description 
given above I do not think it out of place to add the cea observations on 
the different specimens from which I have derived, it :— é 
I. I consider as type-specimens those -of the Malayan Peninsula (Calcutta 
Herbarium No. 7171) and of Seortechini (No. 501°). These last bear male .spadices, 
and. the first a portion of a partial inflorescence, this with very young fruit 
and terminated as in all other specimens of different origin by a slender, short, 
(12 cm. long) sheathed unarmed appendix. The secondary spathes bear only 1 or 2 
