112 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL! BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA.  [/) propinquus. 
are robust, elastic, laminar and rise from a broad base, sub-lanceolate, subulate, 
brown with lighter tip, often laciniate, more or less deflexed, and usually solitary ; 
other smaller but far more numerous spines are interposed between the former and 
are usually scattered all over the surface, but at times are sabseriate and cover the 
base of the petiole as well; the spines near the mouths of the leaf-sheaths are not 
larger than the others. Leaves rather large, cirriferous; the petiole on its upper 
surface is covered with short ascendent spines; the rachis is underneath roundish and 
armed along the centre of ‘the dorsum with claws that are at first solitary, then 
3-nate, half-whorled at regular intervals towards the apex and still more so on 
the cirrus; on the upper surface the rachis is bifaced with a salient angle, which is 
at first obtuse and sparsely prickly, but very acute and smooth towards the upper 
end; leaflets rather numerous, alternate or subopposite, rather remote (4-6 cm, 
apart), equidistant, firmly papyraceous, glabrous, green, very slightly glossy on both 
surfaces, narrowly lanceolate or lanceolate-ensiform, broadest near or below the middle, 
long-acuminate to a subulate tip and rather gradually diminis hing towards the base; 
the mid-costa has a few short bristles on the upper surface, but only near the apex; 
the secondary nerves are slender, and one on each side of the mid-costa is also 
sparingly bristly; underneath the mid-costa alone has a few long bristles; the 
transverse veinlets are very numerous, excessively minute, and give a faintly grained 
appearance to both surfaces when observed under a lens; margins remotely (closer 
towards the apex) spinulous; the intermediate—the largest—leailets are 40-42 cm. 
long, 25-30 mm. broad; the upper are shorter, narrower, and, as usual, more remotely 
set. Male spadiz . . . Female spadiz nodding, sub-axillary, panicled; the panicle is 
diffusedly ovoid, 40-60 cm. in length, with 6-7 partial inflorescences and a 
pedicellar part which is 7-10 em. long, is slightly flattened, and has rather acute 
edges that are strongly armed with straight, thick, woody, rigid, deflexed palmate- 
digitate spines, arising from a very thick base and with the central spine of each group 
longer than the others; primary spathels very thickly coriaceous, or almost woody, of a 
cinnamon-brown colour, glabrous, and rather glossy inside, finely rusty-furfuraceous 
externally, deciduous after flowering; the outermost apparently persists longer than 
the others, and is armed all over, but especially along two faint dorsal carine with 
the same kind of spines as those which cover the peduncular part, but more 
slender, and often aligned into transverse horizontal series; the second and third 
spathes bear only a few, solitary, or 3-nate-digitate spines along the centre of the 
dorsum; the other spathels are smooth, and all in the. unexpanded spadix protrude — 
gradually one above the other; the main axis is obsoletely angular in its lower 
part, slightly flattened higher up, and bears the impressions left by the branches 
and spikelets during prefloration; the internodes are 6-8 cm. long; the lowest (largest) 
partial inflorescences have a short peduncular part (1-2 cm. long, are 12-16 cm. in 
length, and have 3-5 spikelets on each side; the upper intorescences are gradually 
shorter, and have fewer spikelets; all have a distinct axillary callus; their axes are 
rather thick and sub-trigonous; the secondary spathes are reduced to a very short, 
annular, enfire limb, slightly prolonged at one side into a short, acute point, 
Spikelets covered with an adherent, thin, rusty-furfuraceous indumentum, bifariously 
inserted, but somewhat turned outwards, the lowest —the largest—are 4-6 em, long and 
carry 5-9 alternately distichous and subsecund flowers in all; upper spikelets 
shorter and with fewer flowers; the axes of the spikelets are sinuous, thick and 
