998 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. (D. spectabilis 
protruding beyond the other; the outermost prolonged into a triangular, acuminate, 
dorsally-keeled bare point. 
Hanrrar.—Duteh West Borneo, but the exact locality and the name of the 
collector not known, probably Teijsmann. One specimen in the Herbarium at 
Buitenzorg bears the number 16713 and the native name ‘‘Rotan besie” (= the iron 
Rotang), and another the number 16331 and the native name ‘ Rotan asik,” 
OxsrrvATIons.—App tly the affinities of D. asteracanthus are to the species of 
the group to which D. mirabilis belongs, but it is rendered quite distinct from any 
other species known to me by several conspicuous characteristics and especially by 
the radiately-stellate armament of the leaf-sheaths, the distinctly grouped lanceolate 
and quite smooth leaflets, and by the small spadices with quite unarmed spathes. 
PLATE 107.—Daemonorops asteracanthus Bece. Upper portion of a leafy stem 
with a young spadix at its summit; from No. 16331: two portions of the 
leaves from No, 16713 (Herb. Hort. Bot. Bogor.). 
82bis. (90) DavMonorops SPECTABILIS Bece. sp. n. 
Descrrption.—Apparently large and scandent. Leaf-sheaths woody, very formid- 
ably armed with unequal, frequently very large, laminar, dagger-shaped, brown 
spines, which are confluent by their bases, and arranged in oblique rows; some of 
the spines are as much as 6 em, long, and 5-6 mm, broad at their bases. Leaves 
large; those of the upper part of the plant terminated by a very robust cirrus 
which is armed, like the upper part of the rachis, with half or nearly three-quarter 
whorls of very stout claws, confluent in groups of 5-7 by their considerably 
swollen bases; on the upper surface the rachis has a very acute, smooth, salient 
angle, and flat side faces; petiole . . . . ; leaflets very inequidistant, more or 
less grouped, with long vacant spaces between the groups, which are formed by 
2-3 not very approximate leaflets (3-6 cm. apart) on each side of the rachis; the 
leaflets are firmly papyraceous, almost glossy and quite bare of spinules or hairs 
on both surfaces, more or less plicate longitudinally, narrowly lanceolate, 
broadest about their middle, tapering thence lower down towards a rather acute 
base, and in the upper part to a rather abruptly acuminate, caudiculate, bristly- 
spinulous tip; they appear unicostate as they have the mid-costa acute on the 
upper surface and all the secondary nerves unequal, but slender; transverse veinlets 
extremely minute, short and numerous, much immersed in the parenchyma; margins 
minutely spinulous. Male spadic . . . Female spadix erect, rigid, strict. 
the panicle is 30-40 cm. long, sometimes shorter, cupressiform, composed of 7-8 small, 
appressed partial inflorescences and borne on a strongly flattened pedicellar part 
apparently not quite as long as the panicle, 6-10 mm. broad, thinly furfuraceous and 
more or less armed on the rather acute edges with straight, often digitate horizontal 
spines; primary spathes lanceolate, very acuminate, papyraceous, dry, easily splitting 
longitudinally, equally brown and dull on both surfaces; the outermost spathe is rather 
acutely two-keeled with the keels spinulous, otherwise it is smooth, shorter than the inner 
ones; of these the second is about 25 cm. long and about 3 cm. broad and has a few 
spinules on a dorsal keel; the others, although shorter than the second, are slightly 
