32 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. P. billitonensis. 
which and at the base is attached the seed, while in the two others the undeveloped 
ovules are visible. The seed is clothed with a fleshy rather abundant integument ; 
when divested of this it is globular, somewhat depressed, 12 mm. broad, 9 mm. 
high, its surface is nearly even, dull; the chalaza is indistinct. Embryo basal, 
slightly on one side.. The fruiting perianth has the calyx split above into 3 ovate 
acute lobes, and its base very conspicuously obconical and trigonous, forming a pedicel 
to the fruit, which owing to this addition assumes a general turbinate shape. 
Hasitat.—Apparently a rather common plant in Borneo. The species was 
described by Blume from a male specimen collected by Dr. G. Mueller on Mount 
Sakumban in the S.-E. of the Island. In Sarawak (Lobb in Herb. Cale. This was 
the male plant described by Wendland as P. rigida); also in Sarawak on Mount 
Mattang near Kuching (Bece. P. B. No. 3038) and. on Mount Santubong (Hewitt in 
Herb. Kew.-fruit). I have also seen specimens from Dutch Borneo in the Buitenzorg 
Herbarium collected by Hallier at Lianggagang (No. 2967 male specimen), on Gunong 
Kenepai (No. 1715 in fruit), and on Gunong Klam (No. 2358 with very young 
- fruits). 
OssERvATIONSs.— Somewhat variable in the size of the spadices, but especially in 
regard to the leaves, aecording to the age of the plant from which the specimens 
are gathered. In my Sarawak specimens (P. B. No. 3038) the leaflets of the adult 
fertile plant are small, 12—16 cm. long, 2:5—3'5 cm. wide. In a leaf of Hallier's. 
No. 2967, apparently belonging to a not as yet fertile plant, some of the leaflets are 
25—28 em. by 3:51—4 em.  One-leaf in Hallier's No. 1715. has larger and more 
acuminate leaflets than all the foregoing, being 52—55 by 6 cm. 
P. Mueller is distinguishable by its small size; by the leaves with not numerous 
leaflets in groups of 2—4 on each side of the rhachis, green and glabrous on both 
surfaces; by the spikes with very approximate broadly rhomboidal spathels, very 
concave, about as long as broad, slightly scaly outside; by the numerous male flowers 
very densely packed into ovate sessile spikelets, very small and slender, having 
cyathiform trigonous glabrous calyces; by the female flowers having an obconical calyx 
with hard solid base, prolonged into a narrow pedicel; by the fruit globular, slightly ` 
depressed, distinctly beaked, of a hairy but not woolly appearance, supported by the 
obeonie fruiting perianth, which contributes to give the entire fruit a turbinate shape ; 
by the scales wiih fimbriate-hairy tips, appressed and not upturned; by the globular- 
depressed, even-surfaced seed. 
PLate 19.—Plectocomia Muellerii Bl.—Portion of the sheathed stem; an inter- 
mediate portion of a leaf; a branch of the male inflorescence with an entire spike ; 
a spikelet of male flowers. From Hallier’s No. 2967. 
\ s 
Pirate 20.—Plectocomia Muellerii Bl.—The large spike with mature fruits from 
Hewitt’s specimen (Herb. Kew.); the upper part of a plant with a spike and a leaf 
from Beccari P. B. No. 3038. | 
5. PrECcTOCOMIA BILLITONENSIS Becc. sp. n. 
Description.—Sheathed stem of the upper flowering part of the plant nearly 4 
em. in diameter. One leaf, from a young plant, has the leaf-sheath softly tomentose 
in the lower covered part, and thinly, apparently fugaciously, rusty-furfuraceous in 
