C. platyacanthus. | BECCARI. MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS CALAMUS. 443 
where its surface is covered with small erect prickles, rounded beneath; rachis 
the intermediate portion of the leaf) obsoletely  bifaced above, convex beneath, 
where armed on each side with solitary and along the middle geminate (probably 
ternate higher up) rather robust claws; leaflets large, concavo-convex, oblong or 
oblanceolate, 43 cm. long, 8-9 cm. broad, papyraceous, firm, opaque, green, slightly 
paler beneath, attenuate towards the base, somewhat callous at their insertion, rather 
suddenly narrowed to the summit into a short laterally bristly spinulous tip, with 
5 coste and 2-3 secondary slender nerves between each of them; the coste slender 
but rather acute and all about of the same strength, naked or occasionally 
sparingly spinulous in the upper surface, indistinct and naked beneath, transverse 
veinlets numerous very slender; margins acute, very closely and  adpressedly 
spinulous, the lower one bordered in the upper surface with a shining band. Male 
spadiz . . . . . Female spadiz 60 em. long (Balansa) with a few diffuse partial 
inflorescences, apparently a good deal like that of C. khasianus; upper primary spathes 
tubular, closely sheathing, narrowed towards the base, here flat on the inner and 
convex on the outer side, where armed with straight and somewhat deflexed prickles ; 
the largest partial inflorescence seen by me 35 cm. long, spreading, somewhat callous. 
at its insertion with 11 (in all) distichous spikelets and terminating in a very 
short prickly caudiculum ; upper inflorescences a good deal shorter than the lower ones; 
secondary spathes narrowly tubular-infundibuliform, 2*5 om, long, truncate at the 
mouth, prolonged at one side into a triangular decayed point, rather densely prickly 
all round but especially on the back of their upper part; spikelets spreading or 
deflexed, inserted at the mouth of their respective spathes with a rather distinct 
axillary callus; the lower ones, the largest, 8 cm. long with 9-10 flowers on euch 
side; the upper ones much shorter, strongly zig-zag-sinuous between each flower; 
spathels asymmetrically infundibuliform, narrowed a good deal towards the base, 
horizontally truzcate and entire at the mouth where densely ciliolate-paleaceous, 
distinctly apiculate at one side, not striately veined, usually furnished with a hooked 
spine on the middle of their back, more or less scaly-furfuraceous; involucrophorum 
laterally attached to the base of the spathel above its own with a rather distinct 
axillary callus next to the axis, cupular, rather shallow, flat, two-keeled, bidentate 
and slightly excavate on the side next to the axis; involucre moulded on the 
involucrophorum, cupular, rather shallow, more or less distinctly bidentate, remotely 
excavate between the teeth on the side of the neuter flower, otherwise entire and 
ciliolate-furfuraceous at the margin; areola of the neuter flower lunate, very sharply 
bordered. Fruiting perianth distinctly pedicelliform; the calyx cylindraceous with 3 
short and broad teeth; the segments of the corolla a good deal narrower than the 
lobes of the calyx and almost shorter than these. Fruit when quite ripe ovoid- 
elliptic, very suddenly mucronate, 22 mm. long including the mucro and the 
pedicelliform perianth, and 13-14 mm. broad; scales in 18 series, shining, deeply 
channelled along the middle yellowish-brown with a slightly elongate darker point, 
the deeper colour extending at the sides as a narrow intramarginal line, the margins 
‘narrowly but distinctly scarious and finely erosely toothed. ^ Seed ovoid-oblong, 
10-12 mm. long, 7 mm. broad, not or very slightly flattened, strongly pitted and 
boldly tubercled on the back, with a narrow elongate chalazal fovea on the centre 
of the raphal side; albumen slightly ruminate; embryo basal. 
Ann. Roy. Bor. Garb., Catcurta Vor. XI. 
