6 INTRODUCTION. 
VII.—The Flower. 
Neuter flowers.— Whenever the areola or simply a small cicatrix exists at the 
side of the involucre of the female spikelets, there also the neuter flower will be 
found (Pl. II, f. 8, 4); but this latter being very fugacious, and detaching itself 
very easily, is very frequently absent from herbarium specimens. : 
In some cases the neuter flower, which is usually somewhat more slender than 
& female flower, from which it otherwise differs but slightly (Pl. II, f, 8, 5), assumes 
considerable dimensions; thus in D. stenophyllus it measures 4—5 mm. in length, 5 
mm. in D. Pierreanus, 6—7 mm. in D. fissus. I have never found expanded neuter 
flowers, which, it seems, do sometimes occur in the Calami, Yet it is not impossible 
that in certain cases the neuter flowers do expand, and may even have nectariferous 
organs within them. In D. Kunstlerii neuter flowers appear to be wanting, for the 
&reola upon which such a flower should stand cannot be discovered. 
Male flowers.—The male flowers of Daemonorops do not differ essentially from 
those of the Calami; they are always greatly elongated, have the calyx superficially 
3-dentate, and the corolla twice or thrice the length of the calyx (PL IL, f. 9, 4,6). 
In two instances, in D. verticillaris and D. longipes, 1 have noticel nectariform bodies 
at the bases of the filaments of every stamen (Pl. II, f. 7). 
Female flowers.—The female flowers of a  Daemonorops are easily distinguished 
from those of a Calamus, for the former have an almost truncated calyx, superficially 
3-dentate (then split into 3 pieces), and the corolla considerably longer than the 
calyx (Pl. I, f. 1-1; Pl. II, f. 1, 8, @ and 9, 10); whereas in Calamus the calyx 
is deeply tri-lobed or trifid, and the corolla is about the same length as the calyx. 
The female flowers of Daemonorops, like those of the Calami, have 6 sterile stamens, 
forming, with the bases of their filaments, which are joined together, a sort 
of membranous cup or cupula around the ovary, crowned by 6 points, each of which 
carries an abortive anther (Pl. I, f. 4). In D. scapigerus the staminal cupula, as the 
ovary develops, becomes detached from the thorum, but persists around the summit 
of the style on the top of the fruits, like a cylindrical hat. 
. The ovary of the female flower of Daemonorops in no wise differs from that 
of the Calami. In D. Jenkinsianus, where I have been able to study it preserved 
in alcohol, I have found it distinctly three-celled, these cells being throughout of 
equal size, while each is furnished with an ovule, to all appearance equally 
well shaped; soon, however, one of the ovules rapidly surpasses in development 
the other two, which become abortive (Pl. I, f. 5); however, cases in which two 
ovules are both transformed into seeds are, as in Calamus, by no means uncommon. 
The ovules are set in the inner angle of the base of the cells; they are 
anatropous with the micropyle turned outwards, situated near the base, while the 
funiculus is very short. 
