calamus vs rachis

calamus

noun
  • A quill; the hard, horny, hollow, and more or less transparent part of the stem or scape of a feather. 

  • Synonym of fistula (“tube for sucking Eucharist wine”) 

  • A palm in genus Calamus, of rattan palms. 

  • The sweet flag, Acorus calamus. 

  • A fish of genus Calamus in family Sparidae; certain porgies. 

rachis

noun
  • The central shaft of a feather. 

  • The main shaft of either a compound leaf, head of grain, or fern frond. 

  • An anatomical shaft or axis in a marine invertebrate. 

How often have the words calamus and rachis occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )