467 



GENTJS V. CALAMUS. 

 Hexandrla mEonog^ynia. Sex: Syat: 



Beriv. From Kalam, a reed in Arabic. 



Gen. Chak. Flowers dioecious or polygamo-dioecioiis, spathellu- 

 late on the catkins of a spadix : spadix sheatlied with, many iacom- 

 plete spathes. Males. — Outer calyx 3-toothed or cleft, inner 

 3-parted- or 3-sepaled : stamens 6, very rarely fewer : filaments 

 connate at the base : anthers sagittate. Females. — Calyx as in the 

 male : stamens 6, rudimentary, connate into an urceolus : ovary 

 3-celled : ovules erect: stigmas 3, sessile: berry 1, very rarely 

 2 — 3-seeded, coated with imbricated retrorse scales : albumen 

 homy : embryo sub-basilar. — Stems simple, often caespitose, slender, 

 weak, very long, usually wandering far and wide over trees and 

 shrubs, alternately and remotely leafy, terete, narrow-ringed, 

 unarmed, polished, shining, younger ones often besmeared with a 

 glutinous substance, flexible, tough and elastic : fronds lateral, long 

 sheathing : rhachis lax, often altogether leafless, exhibiting straight 

 slender tendrils or attenuated into a tendril-shaped acumen : prickles 

 frequent, smaller ones common on margin and nerves of the pinnae : 

 spadices terminal, lateral by the increasing stem, sheathed with 

 incomplete cyltndric.spathes, distiohously panicle-branched : flowers 

 distichous on the ultimate branches, amentaceous with bracts and 

 spathiform bracteoles, distinct, very small, rose-coloured or greenish : 

 berries globose or elliptic, brown or yellowish. 



(1) C. LAirpoiitrs. (Roxb.) 



Ident. Eoxb. flor. Ind. III. p. 775.— Mart. Palm. 208. 



Spec. Chae. Stem scandent, much elongated : fronds bearing 

 tendrils : pinnae broad-lanceolate many-nerved, fascicled, erect, 

 polished, convex : prickles of the sheaths very broad, flat, sub-ver- 

 ticiUed : male spadix supra^decompound. 



Chittagong, flowering in November and December. 



(2) C. EoTANG. (Linn.J 

 Ident. Linn. sp. 463.— Eoxb. 1. c. 777. 

 Migrm. Mart. Palm. 208, t. 116, fig. 8. 



Spec. Chab. Stem scandent: fronds without tendrils, pinnae 

 somewhat equi-distant, Unear-lanceolate, acuminate : prickles of the 

 sheathes frequent, compressed, straight, of the rhachis straight and 

 recurved, of the spathes and tendrils bent : spadix compound : male 

 calyx 3-cleft, campanulate, a half shorter than the broad-triangular 

 segments of the corolla : berries ovate-sub-globose, size of a small 

 cherry. 



Moist jungles in Bengal and Peninsula, flowering in the rains. 



