58 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. P. paradoxus. 
Male flowers very small, about 2 mm. long (when not full grown) ovoid, acute; 
the calyx 3-toothed, strongly striately veined; the corolla deeply parted into 3 
ovate lobes; stamens. connate by their bases; filaments very thick. 
Hanrrar.—The Malay Peninsula at Rantau Panjang in the State of Selangor. 
Collected by Ridley in August 1904, No. 12119, (specimen with not fully deve- 
loped male flowers. 
OBsERVATIONS.—It is a very imperfectly known and doubtful species, only the 
spadices of the male plant having been as yet collected, and these bearing flowers 
not fully developed. Therefore the specimens upon which the species is established 
are not exactly comparable with those of P. Wrays, to which P. dubius seems how- 
ever closely related. We may even suppose that P. dubius represents a juvenile 
stage of P. Wrayii, from which it apparently differs in the flowers having a strong- 
ly striately veined calyx, and in the corolla ovate and deeply parted, if its shape 
does not change when it attains its full development ; further the leaflets of 
P. dubius have apparently far more secondary nerves than those of P. Wrayit, and 
are more distinctly dotted underneath. In conclusion; P. dubius, established on 
Ridley’s No. 12119, must be considered as yet as a dogbitul species, but certainly 
not referable to P. geminiflorus as has been stated by Ridley (l. e). In  Ridley's 
description of P. geminiflorus are incorporated characteristics not only belonging to 
that plant, but also to P. dubius and to P. Wrayit. 
Pirate 37.—Plectocomiopsis dubius Bece.—Portion of the sheathed stem of the 
flowering plant; an entire partial inflorescence with young male flowers; intermediate 
portion of a leaf. From Ridley's No. 12119 in Herb. Becc. 
Latin Diagnosis.—Plectocomiopsis dubius Becc. sp. nov.  Robustus, caudice 
vaginato obtuse trigono,  ultrapollieari ; vaginis crebre aculeis breviter conicis 
sparsis armatis; frondibus longiuscule petiolatis, segmentis numerosis, aequidistanti- 
bus, nervis secundariis pluribus percursis, punctis exiguis numerosis subtus 
obsitis ; spadice paniculato, amplo, ramis spicigeris numerosis gracilibus; floribus 
parvis ovoideis acutis, calyce conspicue striato-venoso. 
4. PLECrocomiopsis? PARADOXUS Becc. in Hook f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 480. 
Calamus paradoxus Kurz in Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xlii (1874)/213, t. 
© XXIX, XXX and For. FI. Brit. Burma, ii, 521. 
Descrrption.—Scandent and rather large. Sheathed stem 2°5—5 cm. in diameter. 
Leaf-sheaths not gibbous above, gradually passing into the petiole, having no ocrea 
or ligula at the mouth, finely striate, covered with a thin, pale rusty-furfuraceous 
probably fugacious coating, armed with interrupted series or half circles, 2—3 em. 
apart, of confluent, pectinate, slender, straight, flattened, yellows, deflexed spines. 
Leaves about 1'5 m. long in the pinniferous part and terminating in a powerfully 
clawed cirrus; petiole very short, flat above, convex beneath, armed beneath at the 
sides -and along the middle with straight spines; rhachis flat above in its lower 
portion, obsoletely bifaced with a very obtuse but salient angle higher up, roundish 
beneath and armed there in its lower pari, along the dorsum. with recurved spines, 
which are gradually transformed above into stout 2—3-nate claws, becoming in the 
