560 LXXVII. PALMiE. [Calamus. 



at the base of the pinnae, on sheaths broad-based, and often in oblique lines, 

 sheaths and petioles with brownish-white mealy tomentum. Bracts of male 

 flower-spikes large, funnel-shaped. Bengal, in the plains as well as in the hills : 

 walking-sticks are made of the stems. 



The Rattan, which yields the long rope-like canes in Burma ( Taimatta, 

 Kyein),use& in the place of ropes on timber rafts, and of which the cables stretched 

 across the Salween river at the rope-station are made, grows in moist valleys in 

 Martaban and Tenasserim, often 200 ft. long, the elegant crown of leaves sur- 

 mounting gigantic trees, over which it climbs. It is referred to C. latifolius, 

 Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 775 ; Griff. Palms, t. 198, leaflets fasciculate, broadly lanceo- 

 late, petioles of older leaves ending in prickly whip-like thongs ; prickles on 

 sheaths and petioles, large in oblique rings. Also found in Eastern Bengal. The 

 various kinds of canes and Rattans imported into Europe from India, Siam, Co- 

 chin-China, and the Indian Archipelago, are chiefly the produce of species of Cala- 

 mus and allied genera. The Malacca cane of Sumatra is generally ascribed to 

 C. Scipionum, which Loureiro described from Cochin-China. 



Sago is chiefly the produce of several species of Metroxylon (Sagus) which 

 belong to the same tribe as Calamus, but have tall erect stems and the heart 

 filled with farinaceous substance. Metroxylon Rumphii, Mart. Hist. Nat. 

 Palm. 1. 159, and M. laeve, Mart., grow in the Indian Archipelago, Malacca, and 

 Siam. 



Two remarkable genera, Nipa and Phytelephas, resemble Palms in general 

 habit, and their large pinnate leaves, but they differ essentially in the structure 

 of the flowers. Nipa fruticans, Thunb. ; Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. t. 171, 172, 

 is abundant in the mud of the Sundarbans, in the delta of the Irawaddee and 

 Salween rivers, and elsewhere on the coasts of the Bay of Bengal, and on the 

 islands of the Indian Archipelago. A creeping stem bears tufts of gigantic 

 feathery pinnate leaves often more than 20 ft. long. The flowers are monoicous 

 on one inflorescence, a thick spadix with numerous bracts, bearing numerous 

 lateral deciduous male catkins, and at the ends of each branch a few heads of 

 female flowers. The male flowers are triandrous, the 3 stamens connate into one 

 column ; the female flowers are without any perianth. The fruit forms large 

 compact rounded heads, consisting of numerous 1 -seeded fibrous angular drupes 

 with a hard horny albumen. 



Phytelephas macrocarpa, Ruiz et Pavon ; Bot. Mag. t. 4913, 4914, has hard 

 seeds which are largely imported into England, under the name of Vegetable 

 Ivory, and used extensively for turning. Like Nipa fruticans it is gregarious, 

 and has a creeping stem often 20 ft. long, with large pinnatifid leaves, 18-20 ft. 

 long. The flowers are generally dioicous ; the male flowers with numerous 

 stamens ; the female flowers with a 6-9-celled ovary, and a long erect 6-9-fid 

 style. Western South America, between the 9th degree of north and the 8th 

 of south latitude. 



Order LXXYIII. GRAMINEiE. 



Annual herbs with a fibrous root, or a perennial underground stem 

 (rhizome) producing annual or perennial stems (culms), generally in tufts or 

 clusters. Rhizome mostly branching, composed of vascular bundles scat- 

 tered in cellular tissue. Stems jointed, usually hollow between joints ; 

 the joints near the ground often with rings of adventitious rootlets (speci- 



