Apbil 27, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. 



■ 



273 





in all their aspects leads one to the almost he had potted them singly in deep pots plunged revelling, as indeed they all do, in leaf mould; 

 irresistible conclusion that they share a common in sand, taking care to powder the bulbs well it is not a lime hater, and so far as the writer's 



sooner 



with charcoal dust, and, of course, trimming off 

 any damaged or shrunken scales. 



A rather stiff loam seems to suit this Lily well 

 if, instead of planting them out in beds, as far as subsoil is concerned, the stem roots 



Ancestry with L. sulphureum. 



Mr. Chandler would no doubt have brought 

 the bulbs into full vigour a good deal 







# 

















Fig. 



[Copyright, 



I2 7-— LILIUM MYRIOPHYLLUM (OF WILSON) I HEIGHT ABOUT 4 FEET 



experience goe6 



lime-bearing loam than humus. 



is better when planted over 



A. Grove. 



THE RATTANS OR R0TAN6S. ' 



The " Rattan Canes " of commerce are the 



stems of two Old World genera of Palms — Cala- 

 mus and Daemonorops — of which, jointly, about 



300 species are known. With few exceptions, they 

 are climbers from tree to tree, in dense forests. 

 The distinguished traveller and botanist, Dr. 0. 

 Beccari, has devoted a large portion of a long and 

 laborious life to the study of Asiatic l\dms, both 

 in the forest and in tho herbarium, and has con- 

 tributed much to the literature of the mbjeet. 

 Foremost in his work is Iho Mono<jraj*h of the 

 genus Calamus, noticed in some detail in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, vol. xlvi (1909), p. 87, 

 and forming the twelfth volume of the Annals of 



the Calcutta Botanic Garden. The ma nifioent 



illustrations, reproductions of the author's own 

 photographs, constitute the valuable I .dure of 



these monographs. Tiny aiv portrait! of speci 



mens preserved in van us herbaria, but largely 

 in Beccari's own herbarium, and thev include the 

 types or co-types of most of the species. The 

 advantage of having these types brought together 

 in one volume is obvious. In Beccari's mono- 

 graph, each species is very fully described in 

 English, to which is added all particulars of its 

 affinities, distribution, uses, and native or trade 

 names. Approximately, 200 species of Calamus are 

 known, as against somewhat fewer than 100 of 



Doemonorops. Some authors regard Daem .norops 

 as a section of Calamus, and there certainly is no 

 character by which the one perms can at once be 

 distinguished from the other. Dr. Beccari states 

 that they are not m parable by any character 

 easily explained, but by combinations of charac- 

 ters not repeated in th<3 two genera, and he gives 

 the characteristics, positive and negative, side by 

 side. As to the cultivated species of both genera, 

 he says that they are mostly under incorrect 

 names, and there are also names on record of 



w 



species which have disappeared from cultivation ; 

 names which must remain nom'ma nuda for all 

 time. The geographical area of Daemonorops is 

 much more restricted than that of Calamus, and 

 is comprised between Lat. 10° S. and 25° N., and 

 between Long. 85° and 132° E., with much the 

 greatest concentration of species in the Malayan 

 Peninsula and Archipelago, though no 



been found in New Guinea. 



ipeciea has 



Calamus extends to 



the 



western peninsula 

 of India and to tropical Africa on the west, to 

 Formosa, Australia, and Xew Guinea on the east. 

 Myrmecophilism (symbiosis with ants), Beccari 

 states, is far more accentuated in Daemonorops 

 than in Calamus, and is particularly easy of veri- 

 fication in D. verticillaris, D. mirabilis, and D. 

 formicaria. The uses of the stems of Daemonorops 

 are nearly equal to those of Calami, but precise 

 information is wanting, and the real origin of 

 trade produce is often unknown. Dragon's Blood, 

 " Djernang," of the Malays, is the most 

 important product of Dsemonorons. It is fur- 

 nished in abundance and of the best quality by 

 D. Draco, D. Draconcellus, and D. propinquus. 

 With regard to dimensions, Dr. Beccari states in 

 his Monograph of Calamus that none of the stems 

 he measured exceeded 150 feet ; yet Roxburgh de- 

 scribes his C. extensus as having stems 200 yards 

 to 300 yards long. Certain of the mountain 

 species of Daemonorops are of dwarf, erect habit, 

 and suitable for cultivation in a house of moderate 

 size. For example, D. microthamnus, D. monti- 

 colus, and D. tabacinus scarcely exceed a yard in 

 height. ^ 



* AsuUic Palms -Leptdocaryea, by Dr. Odoardo Beccari. 

 Part II. The Species of Damonorops. Annats of the Royal 

 Botanic Garden, Calcutta, vol. xii, part I. Letterpress, 4to. f 

 pp. 237, and two plates of analytical figures with a separate 

 volume of 109 large folio plates. (Calcutta: Printed at the 

 Bengal Secretarial Press.) 19U. Price Rs. 47 or £3 10s. 



i> 



