116 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [K. echinometra. 
blunt, 10—15 cm. long and furnished with a short, terete, closely sheathing 
pedicelliform base; the  inflatel part thinly coriaceous, partially scurfy or 
glabrescent, armed all round with spreading, scattered, very slender, and very 
sharp, elastic, laminar, blackish, glossy spines, 3—8 cm. long. Petiole flattened- 
biconvex, elongate, prickly on the edges. Rhachis armed in its lower part with 
single, and upwards with 2-3-nate claws. Leaflets numerous, 12—15 on each side 
of the rhachis, opposite or alternate, conspicuously discolourous, white beneath, 3—4 
costulate, elongate, linear-lanceolate, narrowing above, acute at the base and not 
ansate; some of them have the apex tovthed, the teeth being narrow, very acute, 
and aristate ; others are very acuminate and have the apex often indented, es- 
pecially on its lower margin; transverse veinlets very sharp; main costae smooth or 
occasionally sparingly spinulous above; the intermediate leaflets ‘are 30—35 em. long 
and 15—25 mm. broad, the upper ones gradually smaller. Spadix much branched 
and diffuse; the branches robust, arched; spathes _ cylindrical, closely sheathing, 
smooth, obliquely truncate at the mouth, and produced ‘at one side into a triangu- 
lar acute point. Spikes cylindrical, usually 15-20 cm. long, 12 mm. in diameter; 
the spathels are suborbicular, concave, strongly striately veined in the covered part, 
and have their obtuse roundish point briefly exerted from the wool of the flower 
bracteoles ; the latter have a very small limb completely hidden by an abundant 
wool. Flowers small, 8 mm. long; the calyx very small 3-lobed ; «the corolla has 
the petals oblong, obtuse, deciduous. Fruit broadly ovoid from a rounded base, 
ecnicaliy and very acutely ,beaked, 13—14 mm. long, 1 em. broad (immature). 
squarrose ; the scales are in about 20 longitudinal series, uniformly cinnamon- 
brown, flattish, not furrowed along the centre, margins and tips coarsely erose- 
toothed or sublacerate. Seed too young in the specimen seen by me to make 
certain of the nature of its albumen. 
HaBrTrAT.—AÀ rather common palm, growing in the Malay Peninsula, in Borneo, 
Sumatra, and Bangka. 1n the Malay Peninsula: Negri Sembilan (Ridley); Perak 
(Scortechini No. 458b in Herb. Bece.); Singapore (Ridley No. 3521), Borneo: in 
Sarawak on Mt. Mattang (Becc. P. B. No. 1935); on the Barram River (J. Hewitt 
in the Herbaria at Kew and Manila—fruiting specimens); Bandjermasin (Collector 
of the Buitenzorg Garden No. 21). Sumatra: in the Residency of Palembang at 
Komering Ulu (Grashof No. 572) and at Lematang ulu (Grashoff No. 197—fruiting 
specimens in Herb. Buitenzorg and Beccari). In Bangka at Klinju ( Grashoff in 
Herb. Buitenzorg and Beccari). Native name ‘in Singapore ‘ Rotang Udan,” in 
Perak “Rotang Sumut” (Scortechini), in Palembang “Uri udang”? or ‘Uri 
Semot " (Grashoff). In Sarawak the Dyaks name for it is “Rotang Rua" and it 
is employed for the same purposes as “R. Cheb." 
OBSERVATIONS.—À very conspicuous and easily recognizable species on account 
of its large inflated ocreae, armed with very long spreading slender spines, and of 
the leaves haying numerous narrow discolourous leaflets. 
The specimens from Borneo have the leaflets with the main nerves smooth, 
whereas in the specimens from Sumatra the same nerves are more or less 
spinulous. The Sumatran specimens have also the ocreae armed with shorter, 
more slender and less numerous spines. 
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