P. geminiflorus. PLECTOCOMIOPSIS. 51 
having the flat sides 1 cm. wide, and the naked cane also with rather 
sharp angles; the mouth of the leaf-sheaths is irregularly truncate. produced 
15—20. mm. above the insertion of the: petiole, and. ciliate on the margin, 
Scortechini also collected in Perak a specimen from a young plant of this Palm 
having trigonous sheaths and stem. The male plant was collected by Franz 
Keheding in Singapore (Herb. Becc.). Recently I have received also a male specimen 
gathered from a plant cultivated at Buitenzorg and introduced from Palembang in 
Sumatra. Female specimens, apparently not differing from those of Malacca, 
are JMeebold's No. 15237 from Bowachoung in Tavoy in Tenasserim (Herb. Breslau), 
and No. 29378 of the Herbarium of the Reporter. on Economie Products to the 
Government of India, from the Twet-wa forest, also in Tavoy ; Burm. name “ Kyein 
Ni”. This last specimen, forwarded to me by Mr. Burkill, differs from the 
Malacca ones- in having the leaflets more distinctly spinulous on the margins, and 
in the perianth of very young fruits having the calyx covered with the same | kind 
of hairs that cover the petals; in this specimen also the first portion of the rhachis 
is prickly on the upper surface. ; 
hd 
OmsERYATIONS.—Ít is a fine and curious palm, which certainly in the young 
stage has a sharply trigonous stem, clothed also with trigonous sheaths. It is 
allied only to P. Wrayii, but it is a larger plant than it and has different 
male and female flowers, although of a similar structure; in this respect differing 
from P. paradoxus and P. floribundus; the female flowers and fruit of which being 
unknown are hardly comparable with the typical species of the genus Plectocomtopsis. 
My description of the male spadix has been drawn up from a specimen col- 
lected by Franz Keheding at Singapore in May 1878 (Herb. Becc.), which is 
aecompained by a portion of a leaf not differing in the slightest detail from the 
leaves of the typical specimen of the female plant. 
In the supplement to Calamus (Annals Roy. Bot. Gard. Calcutta Vol. XI, 
suppl. p. ui) I had reduced C. turbinatus Ridley to Plectocomiopsis Wrayi Becc., 
but after the inspection of the type specimen, kindly forwarded to me by 
Mr. Ridley himself, I have no doubt tuat it corresponds exactly te the fruiting 
plant of P. geminiflorus Bece. i 
Prare 30.—Plectocomiopsis geminiflorus Bece.—Branch of the spadix with male 
flowers in bud; portion of a leaf. From Franz Keheding’s specimen in Herb. Becc. 
Prate 31.—Plectocomiopsis geminiflorus Becc.— Upper portion of a plant with one 
of the lowest partial inflorescences with not quite mature fruits. Portion of the 
sheathed stem from an adult but not yet flowering plant ; intermediate portion of a 
leaf. From Scortechni No. 283b in Herb. Bece. 
"12. PLECTOCOMIOPSIS GEMINIFLORUS var. BILLITONENSIS Becc. 
Description.—Sheathed stem 2—2°5 cm. in diameter. Leaf sheaths of vigorous 
but not yet flowering plants, thinly rusty furfuraceous, variously armed, at times 
densely, with very unequal, subulate, flattened spines, 10—20 mm. long or smaller ; 
ihe mouth oblique, bordered with an elongate, thinly membranous, exsuccous, lace- 
rate, speedly deciduous ocreiform appendage, and often provided at the base of the 
ANN. Roy. Bor. GARD., CALCUTTA, VOL. XII. 
