30 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. P. muellerù. 
I have seen of this species, probably the largest of the known species, only 
a portion of a leaf and two fragments of a male spike. 
Sir Dietrich Brandis, the discoverer of the species, writes (uus EA 
lofty climber, internodes short, leaves 10, flagellum 2 feet long, leaflets approximate 
in pairs or in threes, white farinose beneath, lanceolate, 8—24 by 14—3 inch, midrib 
and two longitudinal nerves close under the edge very stout, sheath and «hachis 
with straight slender spines up to $ in. long, in groups of 2 or 3 or in half 
whorls, appendage of scales stiff linear. Branches of male spadix 4—5 ft. long, 
pendulous, closely covered with broadly obovate distichous imbricating spathels, 
brown with black border, in the axils of which are the spikelets, shorter than 
the bracts with alternate distichous fl. Calyx very shortly 3-toothed, limb woolly 
or ciliate, petals rigid, lanceolate mucronate, stamens 6. Fr. 3-1 in diam.” 
Prare 18.—Plectocomia macrostachya Kwurz—The entire type specimen in the 
Calcutta Herbarium. One half of a spathel showing in its axilla a male spikelet ; 
male flowers, 
4. PLEcrocomia MveLLERII Blume, Rumphia, iii, 7 t. 159 ; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii, 79. 
P. rigida H. Wendl. in Bot. Zeit. 1859, 165. 
Derscription.—Of the usual general appearance but of rather small size. 
Sheathed stem 2—2'5 cm. in diameter. Leaves relatively small; one from the 
upper part of the adult plant and 90 cm. long in the pinniferous part has 28 leaflets 
on the whole and is terminated by a moderately long cirrus and has the petiole 
about 20 em. long and 10 mm. broad at its base; the leaf-sheath is striate and 
provided with some slender digitate spines along the dorsum and at the sides of 
the mouth. The uppermost leaves or those immediately below the inflorescance 
are smaller than those described above, have fewer leaflets, are more briefly 
petiolate, and have quite unarmed leaf-sheaths ; whereas the leaves of the lower 
part of the stem or of young plants are larger in every part and have the leaf- 
sheaths softly tomentose on their lower covered: part, ‘and ‘glabrous on their. ex- 
posed parts greenish, closely striate and rather densely armed with slender, feeble, 
unequal, pale, acicular spines, the largest of whieh are 10—15 mm. long^and united 
by their bases so as to form transversely oblique, frequently interrupted series, 
The petiole is convex beneath, slightly concave near the base oh the upper face, 
flat in the remainder; the margins are very sharp. The rhachi® is obsoletely 
angular, armed with claws, solitary at first and then 2—3-nate, becoming half- — 
whorled at very regular distances in the cirrus; petiole and rhachis glabrous or 
sprinkled with inconspicuous punctiform scales. Leaflets set in distant alternate, 
‘or subopposite groups of 2—4 on each side of ‘the rhachis, lanceolate, elliptical- 
lanceolate or oblanceolate, usually narrowing more toward the base than upwards, 
are rather suddenly acuminate at apex, not quite explanate, that is slightly inflated 
or concave-convex, rather rigid-papyraceous, green on both surfaces, the margins 
smooth, thickened by a nerve stronger than the mid-costa ; secondary nerves 
relatively strong, 5—7 on each side of the mid-costa. The intermediate leaflets in 
leaves of the upper part of the plant 15—20 em. long, 2°5—3°5 cm. wide; the 
lower leaflets are slightly, and the upper considerably ` smaller; the leaves 
