Ridley . — Branching in Palms . 421 
rence in Phoenix sylvestris , and perhaps in the Lumut coco-nut we have 
a parallel case. 
Plectocomia is an enormous rattan which, like others of the climbing 
Calameae, throws up from its base a number of shoots. Of these some, if 
not all, develop into extremely long branches, which with the aid of their 
flagella, armed with hooks, climb to a great height on forest trees. These 
branches in Plectocomia are comparatively slender at the base and thicken 
upwards. In the lower part of the branch, which often lies on the ground, 
roots are emitted from the nodes, and are practically aerial roots, for, 
except at the extreme base, they never reach the ground, but run along 
the branch downwards. It is by no means uncommon to find also shoots 
emitted from the nodes, and one plant in the Botanic Gardens has pro- 
duced a shoot from every node near the base. These shoots never develop 
into branches, but remain quite small, and usually perish with the long 
climbing branch, which dies completely after flowering. 
Calamus leptospadix , a slender rattan from India, grown in the Botanic 
Gardens at Singapore, not rarely produces (especially when the long 
climbing stem touches the ground) shoots at the nodes, by which the plant 
can be propagated. 
This layering of a rattan branch is not very uncommon in the jungles, 
especially where the rattan has fallen across a wild beast track, and 
elephants, rhinoceros, and such large animals in walking along the track 
constantly step on the prostrate rattan. The rattan emits roots from its 
nodes, and then develops a tuft of shoots, which may in time become 
transformed into a fresh bush. 
From these Calami can be obtained the so-called ‘ reversed rattans,’ in 
which the leaf-sheaths apparently point towards instead of away from the 
dilated root-bearing portion — very puzzling to explain till it is realized 
that the thickened head of the cane is not the real base of the rattan, but 
the thickened portion, which has been layered at some distance from the 
original root of the plant. 
Calamus sp.> (PI. XXXIX). This elegant little dwarf rattan is 
abundant on Matang mountain in Sarawak. Its stem is a few feet long 
only, and it hardly climbs. The inflorescence is very lax, and 4 or 5 feet 
long, with much branched panicles of slender branchlets in the male and 
fewer and often simple branchlets in the female plant. The inflorescences 
hanging down usually rest on or close to the ground of the banks in which 
it grows, and where they do so bulbils are produced from the axils of the 
sheathing bracts in place of a branch of the inflorescence or quite replacing 
it. These bulbils take root and develop into fresh plants. This seems to 
be commoner in the female inflorescence, which is shorter than the male, 
and generally the bulbils are produced towards the end of the inflorescence. 
This is not a casual abnormality, but seems to be regular ; most female 
H h 
