106 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [C. pogonacanthus. 
truncate at the mouths and produced at the upper end into a triangular point, 
concave or deeply grooved on the axial side in their lower part; spikelet- 
bearing branchlets inserted just at the mouths of their respective spathes with a 
distinct axillary callus, deflexed; the lower branchlets are 12-14 cm. long and 
earry 9-10 spikelets on each side; the others are gradually smaller and have fewer 
spikelets; spathels of the branchelets infundibuliform, truncate and ciliolate at the 
mouths, shortly apiculate at one side; spikelets spreading or deflexed, short, pectinate 
with very closely packed, flatly-bifarious flowers; the largest spikelets 12-15 mm. 
long with 8-10 flowers on each side; spathels concave, boat-shaped, ciliolate, 
horizontel acute on the outer side; involucre shorter than its own spathel, 
dimidiately cupular or like a swallow’s nest. Flowers perfectly bifarious, horizontal, one 
in contact with the other, linear, subterete or very obsoletely trigonus, bluntish, 
about 4 mm. long, 1 mm. thick; the calyx thinly coriaceous, deeply 3-lobed, 
smooth; the corolla two and a half or nearly three times as long as the calyx; 
the segments smooth, 
159a, CALAMUS POGONACANTHUS,. Becc. in Bot. Jahrb xlviii (1912), 91. 
DzscRIPTION.—Seandent, of moderate size. Sheathed stem 25 cm. in diameter. 
Leafsheaths conspicuously transversely puckered above, obliquely truncate at the mouths, 
the edges of which are densely hairy spinulous; the surface of the leaf-sheath is rather 
densely armed with very unequal spines, of which a considerable number ure rather large, 
scattered or obliquely subseriate, slightly ascendent or subhorizontal, triangular, very 
sharp, thinly laminar, yet very rigid, 10-15 mm. long, 6-10 mm. broad at the 
base, which is concave below, dark-brown or blackish, glossy, conspicuously and 
densely fringed or bearded with darker hairs on the edges; intermingled with these 
large spines are others more numerous and smaller, but of the same description 
and equally bearded on the edges. The leaf-sheaths of the upper part of the plant, 
when not bearing spadices, are furnished with a rudimentary flagellum, 10-12 cm. 
long, very slender, flatttened and prickly. Leaves cirriferous, about 1°5 m. long 
in the pinniferous part; the cirrus about as long, rather robust, extremely closely 
and irregularly armed on its lower surface with scattered (neither digitate nor half- 
whorled; very sharp, black-tipped claws; the petiole is rather short (14 em. long, 
12-13 mm. broad in one specimen), polished, flat on the upper surface, convex on 
the lower, the margins acute, armed with small prickles; rachis, in its lower 
portion, biconvex and deeply grooved along the sides for the insertion of the 
leaflets, bifaced higher up on the upper surface, with a smooth salient angle, armed 
throughout on the lower with numerous, solitary, scattered (never digitate) small 
claws. Leaflets rather numerous (36 on each side in one specimen) inequidistant, 
yet not distinctly grouped, usually spaced 3-5 cm. on each side, at times even 
10-12 cm., papyraceous, rather flaccid, dull and concolorous on both surfaces, with 
a narrow glossy band on the lower margin of the upper, narrowly 
oblanceolate or linear-lanceolate, usually broader above the middle, and thence 
narrowing towards the base, above rather suddenly acuminate to a fine subulate 
minutely ciliate apex, 45-costulate; the 5 costae on the upper surface and at 
times also one or two secondary nerves are furnished with short black bristles, 
and on the lower surface 7-9 nerves are also sprinkled with the same kind of 
bristles; the margins are very minutely and  appressedly spinnlous; transverse, 
