410 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. (C. spinifolius. 
Hasrtat.—Sikkim Himalaya. Lieut.-Col. Prain, who kindly forwarded me the 
specimens with spadices I have described above, says of this variety that it occurs 
in the plains below Sivoke (outer slopes of Himalaya) on damp ground, and that 
it is a long rambler over trees. Lepcha name ‘“Ruebee” (Prain}, To this variety 
must be referred also a specimen presented to me by Sir Dietrich Brandis, who 
collected it in the district of Jalpaiguri in the Western Duars m Bengal and another 
from the Daarbund Pass in Cachar (Keenan in Herb. Kew). All these specimens 
have the newly-exposed leaf-sheaths marbled or mottled. 
OnsERvaTIONS.— The type-specimens of C. latifolius seem by me have only female 
and the variety only male spadices, but very likely no appreciable differences exist 
between the spadices of the type and those of the variety. The variety marmoratus 
is based not only on the marbled appearance of the surface of the leaf-sheaths but 
also on the two different forms of spines with which they are covered and on its 
smaller size. 
PrarE 177.—Calamus latifolius var. marmoratus- Bece. Portion of the sheathed 
stem with base of a leaf and with an entire male spadix; an intermediate portion 
of a leaf (under surface); leaf-sheath with base of a leaf from the upper part of a 
young plant.—From Prain’s Sivoke specimen in Herb. Becc. 
148. CALAMUS SPINIFOLIUS Becc, in Ree. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 202. 
Description.—Slender, scandent. Sheathed stem 12-14 mm. in diam. Leaf-sheaths 
gibbous above, obliquely truncate at the mouth, mottled with very small green and 
white furfuraceous patches and armed with scattered subulate, slender, 5-10 mm. 
long, brown-tipped spines which leave a very distinct impression above them. 
Ocrea very short, forming a very narrow furfuracedus margin at the mouth of 
the sheath. eaves of the upper and fertile part of the plant about 1 m. long 
in the pinniferous part and terminating in a filiform cirrus, armed with half- 
whorls of slender claws; petiole rather elongate (8-12 cm. long) sub-biconvex, 
covered with small straight prickles in its upper surface, also more or less armed 
at the sides and beneath with scattered straight spines; rachis armed beneath at 
first with solitary and then geminate and ternate claws in its upper part, bifaced 
and spinulous or smooth on the salient angles above; leaflets not very numerous (32 
in one leaf) in pairs or in threes, very approximate by their bases on each 
side of the rachis with rather long vacant spaces interposed between the groups, 
the pairs or the groups usually not opposite, elliptie-lanceolate or oblanceolate, 
broadest about or above the middle and thence tapering to an acuminate and 
bristly point, gradually attenuate to and acute at the base, all {except a few 
near the summit) of about the same size, 12-16 em. long, 2-2'5 em. broad, 
rigidulous, papyraceous, green and concolorous on both surfaces, 3- or sub-5-costulate, 
the mid-costa, and often 1-2 of the side costae, furnished with a few rigid straight 
needle-like black-tipped, 3-8 mm. long spines; in the lower surface all the nerves faint 
and naked; transverse veinlets sharp, approximate, sinuous and interrupted; margins 
rather closely and spreadingly spinulous; often the lower margin in the upper 
surface bordered by a rather broad shining band. Male spadiz slender; elongate, 
