K. ferox. KORTHALSIA. 139 
the uppermost 20—25 cm. long by 8—10 broad; the ansæ are very strongly 
flattened or laminar and very long (3:3—5 em.) The spadix (only fragments seen 
by me) is very much like that of K. Teysmannü; the spikes, borne on a rather long 
pedicellar part, are exserted from their respective spathes, are 10—11 em. long, 10 
mm. broad. and have a conspicuous tomentose appearance, their spathels being 
entirely hidden in the dense wool of the flower-bracteoles. Fruit oblong-turbinate or 
broadly clavate-turbinate, gradually attenuate from near the apex towards the base, 
with the apex rounded and surmotinted by a short conical pungent mucro, 2 cm. 
long, and 10—11 cm. broad; the scales are in 15 longitudinal series, regularly 
rhomboidal, the largest 5 mm. long and as many broad, convex, deeply grooved 
along the centre, glossy, uniformly reddish-brown, with a very narrow dark intra- 
marginal line; the apices appressed, not prolonged, obtuse; the margins bordered 
with a narrow fringe of rusty cilia. Seed oblong or oblong-elliptical, 13—14 mm. 
long, 75—85 mm. broad, and a little less in thickness, being slightly flattened 
blunt at both ends; its surface is covered by a network of faintly impressed veins 
and is grooved (not deeply) along the raphal side; the intrusion of the integu- 
ment is large and oblong; the albumen is ruminate; the embryo is in the middle 
of the antiraphal side. » 
Hasirat.—Borneo. The description of K. ferox was based on sterile specimen 
collected by me on Mt. Mattang near Kuching, in Sarawak (P. B. Nos. 1913, 1926); 
native name ‘“ Rotang Dahan” or the “Branched Rotang,” a name applied by the 
Malays to all Korthalstas having a large terminal inflorescence. 
Specimens corresponding to the preceding, but having the leaf-sheaths and the 
ocreæ still more densely spinous were collected by. Heyne (No. 2523 Buitenzorg 
and Beccari Herbaria) at Pontianak, in Dutch Borneo. All the above-mentioned 
specimens are evidently from plants that had not attained their full development. 
One from the Sungei Kenepai collected by Hallier (No. 2018 in Buitenzorg Her- 
barium) apparently belonging to a more adult plant than the preceding, but exactly 
corresponding to them in general aspect. has the sheathed stem 20—22 cm. in 
diameter, but the leaflets are larger, some of them being 28 cm. long and 12—13 
cm. broad. This specimen makes the transition to the plantbearing fruit, upon 
which I have mainly based the description of the adult plant, and which was 
gathered from a plant cultivated at Buitenzorg, but of Bornean origin. 
OnsEkvATIONS.— K. ferox is very closely related to K. Teysmannii and K. lacini- 
osa ; indeed the specimens of these three species are with difficulty, if at all, dis- 
tinguishable the one from the other, when not in fruit. 
K. ferox is characterized by its large size; by the ocreæ covered with broad, 
flattened spines; by the large leaves bearing numerous cuneate-rhomboidal leaflets, - 
having the upper margins terminated by very acuminate teeth; by the spikes 
tomentose and having the spathels entirely immersed in the wool of the flower- 
bracteoles; but especially by the oblong-clavate fruit, considerably narrowing at 
the base, and having convex deeply grooved scales, with narrowly and minutely 
fringed, ciliate margins, and obtuse, appressed apices; and finally by the oblong, 
ruminate seed. . 
"PANN: Roy. Bor. GARD, CALCUTTA; VOL. XI. 
