P. geminiflorus. PLECTOCOMIOPSIS. 49 
pale, laminar, subulate, up to 2 cm. long and irregularly set in small interrupted 
series. Intermediate leaves about 2 m. long, having a short petiolar part (reduced 
to nothing in the uppermost leaves) glabrescent or slightly scurfy, 10—13 mm. 
broad, flattish, slightly furrowed along the centre above, convex and sparingly 
clawed along the centre beneath; the edges acute and with few distant prickles ; 
rhachis concave above in its lower portion, but with a salient smooth angle 
upwards, and on the whole trigonous in transverse section, armed below with 
distant at first single, higher up geminate and finally ternate claws ; the cirrus is 
elongate and armed at regular intervals with half whorled claws. Leaflets numerous, 
equidistant, 4—6 cm. apart, (at times more) on each side of the rhachis. firmly papyra- 
ceous, lanceolate, largest about their middle, and thence, gradually and almost equally » 
narrowing towards both ends, thé base acute, gradually acuminate from above the 
middle upwards to a very finely subulate, very slightly bristly tip, glossy above and 
slightly paler on the undersurface, which also is closely sprinkled with very. minute 
pale dets (mierolepidia), visible only under a lens; the mid-costa slender, smooth 
or occasionally furnished with a few rigid subspiny bristles ; secondary nerves 
numerous on each side of the mid-costa, unequal and connected by sharp transverse 
veinlets; margins acute or slightly thickened, smooth or very sparingly and 
remotely spinulous; the intermediate leaflets 25—30 cm. long. 2°5—3°5 em. broad . 
upper leaflets gradually diminished till the terminal leaves are reduced to almost 
only the sheaths and the rhachis, bearing very few and very narrow leaflets, and 
terminating in a slender clawed gradually shorter cirrus. Male spadix apparently 
more diffuse than the female; a partial inflorescence, probably not entire, is 50 
em. long, and in every part of a uniform fulvous tint; its main axis is 8 mm. 
thick at its base, narrows above and . carries numerous flower-bearing branchlets, 
all turned to one side; the spathes are tubular-infundibuliform, closely sheathing 
obliquely truncate and sciliate at the -mouth, and produced at one side into a 
triangular acuminate point, are finely striate and thinly covered with appressed 
whitish scales. The flower-bearing branchlets are inserted nearly at the‘ bottom 
of their relative spathe with a flattened pedicellar part, are considerably thinner 
than the female branchlets, 20—25 cm. long, flaccid, nodding or pendulous. 
distinctly zig-zag sinuous between the spikelets or glomerules of flowers ; their 
spathes are infundibuliform with a narrow base and a wide truncate ciliate 
mouth, produced at one side into a triangular acuminate point, and densely 
covered with short  fulvous hairs. The spikelets are reduced to glomerules 
composed of 5—7 flowers in all, disposed in two series; spathels bracteiform, acute, 
slightly concave with a broad base, membranous, striate, ciliate; involucre slightly 
concave, more or less distinctly 3-toothed and  striately veined. Male flowers 
globose-ovoid, 4 mm. long, very obsoletely 3-gonous, with a broad base and an 
obscurely pyramidate point; the calyx subcoriaceous, thickish, glabrous, shortly and 
broadly 3-toothed, not or only very faintly striately-veined ; the corolla broadly 
ovoid ; petals cartilaginous, ovate-elliptical, acute; stamens 6, having the filaments 
united in their lower part and forming there a small fleshy cup, each filament 
having however a short and thick free part, which in 3 stamens is slightly 
longer than. in the other 3; anthers broadly ovate, blunt, the cells opening 
laterally. Rudimentary ovary none. The female inflorescence consists of a large 
terminal leafy panicle, composed of several gradually curtailed and nodding partial 
ì 
ANN. Roy. Bot. GARD., CALCUTTA, VOL. XII. 
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