C. Laurentii. | BECCARI. THE SPECIES OF CALAMUS.—SUPPLEMENT. 5 
The great affinity, or the perhaps almost specifical identity, of €. Schweinfurthii 
with C. deerratus is a fact worthy of notice on account of two other palms 
growing in the same region, Ancisirophyllum opacum and Eremospatha Cabrae, which, 
almost unaltered in their specific characters, enjoy an extraordinarily large 
geographical range across central equatorial Africa, from the lake regions to the 
Gulf of Guinea. i | 
20 a. Caramus Lavrenti De Wild., Etudes sur la Flore du Bas et Moyen Congo, 
ii, (1904), 97, pl. xxvii, xxviii, and Mission Laurent, 24. 
Description.—Scandent, rather slender. Sheathed stem 18-20 mm. in diameter. 
Leafsheaths slightly gibbous above, rather thickly coriaceous, more or less covered 
with a tobaeco-coloured furfuraceous seurf, and very densely armed with irregularly 
and very closely, interruptedly  seriate, deflexed spines, which are thinly laminar, 
very acuminate, 1-2 em. long, glossy and almost black, with a lighter and slightly 
swollen base; near the mouth, on the ventral side, the spines are more numerous, 
longer than elsewhere and ascendent. Ocrea very conspicuous, elongate, 12 cm. long 
(in one specimen), densely covered on the outer side with erect spines similar to 
those of the sheaths but a little longer and less rigid; at tirst the ocrea is liguli- 
form and entire, but later is divided down along the middle in two almost linear 
parts, one on each side of the petiole. ^ Leaf-sheath flagella springing from very 
near the mouth of the sheaths, very long and slender and armed with very small 
usually scattered claws. Leaves rather large, the two seen by me 1°40 m. long on 
the whole, not cirriferous ; petiole about 25 em. long, 8-10 mm. broad, flat on the 
upper surface, armed rather powerfully at the margins with several laminar spines 
similar to those of the sheaths but longer; near the mouth the Spines are deuser 
and longer than elsewhere (4-6 cm. long); underneath the petiole is rounded and 
armed with some straight needlelike spines which along the middle are at first 
straight and gradually pass into claws; the rachis on the lower surface is convex 
and armed with a single series of rather long-tipped solitary claws along the middle 
and occasionally with smaller claws at the sides near the insertion of the leaflets ; 
Leaflets rather namerous, about 30 on each side, all on one plane ‘not pointing in 
different directions) very inequidistant, especially in the lower part of the rachis, 
where they are usually approximate in groups of 4-5 on each side with vacant 
spaces 8-10 em. long; in each group they are 1-2 cm, apart; towards the summit 
of the leaf the leaflets are less irregularly set and usually 2-3 cm. apart, rarely 
more; the leaflets are rigidulously papyraceous, linear-lanceolate or narrowly  lanceo- 
late-ensitorm, tapering towards the base from below the middle and thence gradually 
acuminate above into a subulate, very slender, bristly spinulous apex, dull and 
subconcolorous on both surfaces; the mid-costa is acute and  spinulous only near 
the apex above, and is accompanied on each side by 2-3 secondary nerves, of 
which one. is conspicuously spinulous throughout and is a little stronger than the 
others, but not so much so as to render the upper surface distinctly three-costulate ` 
the under surface is not dotted, has the mid-costa bristly-spinulous near the apex 
and one nerve on each side of it also spinulous throughout; margins slightly 
thickened by a weak secondary nerve, closely and rather spreadivgly spinulous- 
serrulate; transverse veinlets slender, much interrupted; the largest leaflets, those 
of the lower third of the entire leaf are 45-50 cm. long. and 18-20 mm. 
