442 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. (ÇC, platyacanthus. 
(estriate), divided midway down into 3 broad acute lobes; segments of. the corolla 
opaque, barely longer and a good deal narrower than the lobes of theealyx. Fruit 
rather large, the only one, not quite mature, seen by me, 28 mm. long, ovoid- 
elliptic, very suddenly and shortly beaked and crowned by the small slender 
recurved stigmas and with a small basal caudiculum enclosed in the perianth; 
scales in 15 series, broadly and rather deeply channelled along the middle, shining, 
yellowish-brown with a very broad almost black marginal line, tip short obtuse, 
margins erosely toothed. Seed 
Hasitat.—The Malayan Peninsula. Discovered by Father Scortechini in the State 
of Perak (Scortechini in Herb. Becc.) and found again in the State of Johore at 
Kwala Tebing Tinggi by H. N. Ridley in 1901. (Ridley Nos. 11202 and 11203 
in Herb. Berol.) 
OsnsERVATIONS.— This is one of the largest species of Calamus known, very closely 
related to C. Manan, from which it differs in the leaflets paler beneath than above, 
with smooth margin, and in the spikelets shorter, stouter and distinctly flattened. 
Scortechini’s specimen consists of a portion of a male spadix out of flower, a small 
portion of a very large ieaf, and an entire partial inflorescence with only one 
immature fruit.  Ridley's specimens are more complete as to the leaves, but the 
female spadix bears only ovaries in course of development. The leaves evidently 
terminate in a flagellum; the leaflets are as much as 14-16 cm. apart on each side, 
where there is often a tendency to be approximate in pairs; subglaucescent beneath ; 
the rachis subhiconvex in section in its first portion where ratüer densely armed beneath 
at the sides with stout claws, bifaced above towards the summit where armed beneath 
with half-whorled claws. The female spadix terminates in an abortive flagellum 
which is 40 cm. long and is armed all round with solitary broad-based black-tipped 
claws, the partial inflorescences are 25-35 cm. long with 5-6 spikelets on each 
side, these somewhat more slender than in Scortechini’s specimen. 
PLATE 197.—Calamus giganteus, Becc. — Leaf-sheath with base of the petiole; 
portion of leaf from near the base (upper surface); portion of the female spadix 
from near its base, with an entire partial inflorescence and one immature fruit ; 
branchlet from a male spadix- when all the flowers had fallen away.—From 
Scortechini’s specimen in Herb. Becc. | 
168. CALAMUS PLATYACANTHUS Warb. (name only in Herb. Berol) not of Mart. 
DescripTion.—Robust, not very high scandent. Leaf-sheaths apparently 4-5 cm. 
in diam. almost woody, gibbous above, fearfully armed with very large, flat, 
laminar, elongate, triangular-lanceolate, very acuminate, very approximate, solitary 
or more often confluent-subseriate or subverticillate spines, which are light-coloured 
or greenish-brown like the sheaths and sometimes attain the enormous length of 8-9 
em. being 10-15 mm. broad at their base; the spaces between these large 
spines are covered as in C. nambariensis with smaller ascendent ones. Ocrea very 
short, reduced to a small axillary glabrous and naked ligula and a narrow rim at 
the mouth of the sheath. Leaves very large, apparently very much like those of 
C. khasianus, but seen by me only in a very fragmentary state; petiole flat above, 
