446 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [C. albus. 
of the corolla also polished outside, acute, about as long as but narrower than the lobes 
of the calyx. Fruit globoso-obovoid or obovoid-subturbinate, rounded at the summit 
where topped by a distinct mucro, caudiculate at the base, 18-19 mm. long (including 
the mucro and the perianth), 12-14 mm. broad; scales in 15 series, shining, rather 
convex, faintly channelled along the middle, straw-coloured with the point obtuse 
sometimes slightly prolonged and spotted with reddish-brown; the margins scarious, 
erosely toothed, usually lighter or with vestiges of a very narrow darker intra- 
marginal line. Seed when covered with the dry integument, which even when dry 
retains a very acid taste, ovoid, about 10 mm. long, boldly tubercled and deeply 
pitted on the back when freed from the integument, flattish, with a superficial 
chalazal fovea on the rapbal side; albumen coarsely ruminate; embryo basal. 
Hasirat.—Rumph says that this species grew in sandy places on the northern 
part of the Gulf of Amboina, and that it received the names of ''Rottang (or Ua) 
putti” (=white) and more specially that of “Ua Ela” or “Ua Ahun Tayn,” that is 
to say, the “pigeon or bird dung Rotang” on account of the white patches on its 
leaf-sheaths. 
' Rumph gives also many details about the uses of this Rotang, which is of a good 
quality and much employed, like the other species, either whole or reduced to strips. 
OssERVATIONs.—1 have written the description of C. albus on very complete culti- 
. vated specimens, which I have received from the Botanic Garden of Buitenzorg, but 
I have not a shade of doubt about these being conspecific with the plant described 
and figured in the Herbarium Amboinense, as one authentic specimen of C. albus 
from Rumph himself has been found by me amongst the ancient collections of 
the Museum of Natural History in Florence. It is now well known that in the 
year 1682 Rumph sent a very large collection of the Natural History objects of 
which he made use for the description and the plates of his famous works to the 
Grand Duke of Tuscany (see M. Martelli: Le Collezioni di G. E. Rumph: Florence 
1903). Of these collections one catalogue was written by G. Targioni-Tozzetti, 
and in this are enumerated two species of Palmijuncus and precisely the P. albus 
and the (P. Calapparius  Demonorops Calapparius) (Martelli l. c. p. 163) which 
probably are now the only extant botanical specimens of all the plants described or 
figured in the “Herbarium Amboinense.””  Rumph's authentic specimen of Palmijuncus 
albus (C. albus) consists of a portion of a partial inflorescence, 16 cm. in length, 
witb 3 spikelets on each side, which bear stil attached 11 fruits. This specimen 
in the minutest details exactly agrees with the corresponding parts of the cultivated 
plants, only the fruit in Rumph's specimen is slightly larger, being riper. 
Rumph describes the ieaf-sheaths of Palmijuncus albus as mottled, but this 
character, as I have observed in other species, is often only apparent in the very 
young sheaths of the upper part of the plant, while the specimens I have examined 
were all adults. Further in Rumph's plate the sheaths appear armed with 
whorled spines, whereas they are scattered in the Buitenzorg specimens. These 
vary a good deal in size, some of them having the sheathed stem 2 cm. in diam., 
while it is 5 cm. in others. 
