438 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. LC. Manan» 
the same locality Lt.-Col. D. Prain kindly forwarded to me in 1902 the entire 
upper portion of a plant with fruit spadices. From this specimen I have derived 
the description above. 
OBSERVATIONS, —The specimen I have described agrees in every respect with an 
authentic one of Anderson which I had received from the Calcutta Herbarium. In 
the Flora of British India C. inermis had been considered to be the same as C. 
latifolius, from which, however, it is widely different, though the young specimens of 
the one may be easily mistaken for those of the other, at least when seen in a 
dry and fragmentary state in herbaria. C. inermis has the fruiting perianth pedicelli- 
form whilst it is not so in C, latifolius. 
The chief characters of C. inermis are the very robust stem ` with perfectly 
smooth sheaths; the very large leaves with strong and very powerful clawed 
cirrus; the smooth petiole and numerous paired large 3-5-costate leaflets, of these the 
lowest ensiform, the intermediate lanceolate; the «coste smooth on both sides; the 
female spadix strict; the spikelets erect or erecto-patent, not callous at their insertion ; 
the fruiting perianth ventricose; the fruit large ellipsoid.—See observations under 
C. khasianus. 
With the fertile spadices we sometimes meet with some in a rudimentary er 
abortive state which correspond to the flagella of the non-cirriferous species; they 
are filiform, erect, flattened, unarmed, sheathed by numerous spathes like those of 
the fertile spadices, but of course smailer. 
Plate 195.—Calamus inermis 7. Anders, Portion of the sheathed stem from the 
upper part of the plant with the base of a spadix; an intermediate portion of a 
leaf (under surface); portion of the cirrus; the upper part of a female spadix; 
spikelet with mature fruit.—From Prain’s specimen in Herb. Becc, 
166. Catamus Manan Mig. in Journ. de Bot. Néerl. i, 23 and Prodr. Fl. Sum., 
296 and 595 and De Palmis, 28; 'Teysm. Cat. Hort. Bog. 75; H. 
Wendl. in Kerch. Les Palm. ii, 236; Becc. in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. 
211. 
DrscRiPTION.— Seandent, very large. Sheathed stem 7-8 cm. in diam. Leaf-sheaths 
very thick, woody, ve gibbous above, fearfully armed at least in their upper 
part, and likewise at the base of the petiole, with very numerous short triangular, 
acuminate, light-based, brown-tipped, horizontal or slightly deflexed spines. Ocrea in 
the adult leaves inconspicuous. eaves very large, about five metres long in the 
pinniferous portion; the cirrus itself 3 metres long and very robust, armed at almost 
regular intervals with three-fourths whorls of 6-7 confluent very stout black-tipped 
claws; petiole very short, very robust, about 4 cm. broad at its base, rounded 
beneath; flattish above; rachis in the first portion biconvex and very densely armed 
all round, like the petiole, with short very rigid, straight, triangular solitary or 
confluent spines, not channelled at the sides where are inserted the leaflets; in the 
intermediate portion almost flat beneath and clawed there at the sides and not along 
the middle; upwards very obsoletely od above and clawed beneath at first with 
