malacca cane

Noun capitalized: Malacca cane

Malacca cane (countable and uncountable, plural Malacca canes)

1. (uncountable) Calamus scipionum, a species of thick rattan climbing palm native to Southeast Asia; its material; (inexact) closely similar species and their material.
   • The mallets or sticks [sc. used in polo] are generally of malacca cane.1897, Outing, number 30, page 483
   • Malacca cane grows in clumps in the jungle.1965, Charles Shuttleworth, Malayan Safari, page 88
2. (countable) A walking stick made of C. scipionum or similar material with a rich but mottled brown color.
   • The well-known ‘Malacca Canes’... do not occur about Malacca itself, but are imported from Siak, on the opposite coast of Sumatra.1856, Berthold Carl Seemann, A Popular History of the Palms and Their Allies, page 131
   • Malacca canes have frequently to be colored in parts.1874, Edward H. Knight, The Practical Dictionary of Mechanics, volume I, page 443

   Synonyms:

   malacca stick