Calamus Rotang

This is one of the palms that furnish the canes or rattans used for chair bottoms, sides of pony-carriages, and similar purposes. It is a climbing palm and grows to an immense length; specimens 300 feet long have been exhibited, climbing over and amongst



the branches of trees, supporting themselves by means of the hooked spines attached to the leaf stalks. _C. rudentum_ and _C. viminalis_ furnish flexible canes. In their native countries they are used for a variety of manufacturing purposes, also for ropes and cables used by junks and other coasting vessels. In the Himalayas they are used in the formation of suspension bridges across rivers and deep ravines. _C. scipionum_ furnishes the well-known Malacca canes used for walking sticks. They are naturally of a rich brown color. The clouded and mottled appearance which some of these present is said to be imparted to them by smoking and steaming.

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