290 MR. D. MOEEIS ON THE PRODUCTION 



flows for some time, and after a short rest a similar notch is cut 

 on the other side. A wild date is fit to cut when six to ten years 

 old, and yields toddy for twenty years. 



There are many instances of branching specimens amongst the 

 wild date of India. A fine specimen was growing in the Residency 

 Garden, Indore, in 1873, with a trunk 22 feet high to the first 

 branch, and with twenty vertical closely packed branches. In 1888 

 these branches were reduced to twelve. A figure was given in 

 the 6 Journal Agri-Hort. Soc. India,' iv. n. s. 1873, and a more 

 recent one in the ' Journal Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc' vol. iii. 

 (1888) p. 250. Mr. J. Scott, in communicating a note on the 

 above palm to the Agri-Hort. Society of India, mentioned that 

 a large specimen of the wild date existed near Ooloobariah with 

 seven well- developed heads. Another, but a smaller one, existed 



at Sookchur, near Barrackpore, with six lateral branches over- 

 topped by the main crown. Both these were uprooted by the 

 cyclone of 1864. Mr. Storey forwarded a photograph of a 

 branched wild date growing in a jungle about thirty miles from 

 Oodeypore *. This had a low stem branching at a few feet from 

 the ground with seven branches, one being broken. Mr. Storey 

 attributes the branching of palms in his neighbourhood to the 

 action of a palm-beetle, identified by Professor "Westwood as 

 Oryctes rhinoceros t. He adds, " I have in nay garden one tree 

 which has been attacked, and it is now throwing out a side-shoot." 

 A third specimen, shown in a photograph also sent by Mr. Storey 

 (now in the Kew Museum), is a striking tree with three branches. 

 One of these appears to be a side-shoot which has emerged at a 

 comparatively late period. A specimen shown in a photograph 

 taken by Mr. C. B. Clarke, F.K.S., at Nowgong, Assam (in the 

 Kew Museum), has several branches arranged alternately along 

 the stem. The first emerged at about 4 feet from the ground. 

 In this, as in Nannorliops Ritchieana (presently to be consi- 

 dered), these branches appeared to be produced by flowering buds 

 being replaced by branch-buds. 



Nannoehops Eitchieana, H. Wendl. Sf Drude. 



This is a fau-leaved palm, a native of the barren hills below 



* Gard. Chron. ii, (1889), p. 275, fig. 40. 



t Oryctes rhinoceros is commonly known as the Rhinoceros, Elephant or 



Black Beetle. 



ferrugineus 



known as the Red Beetle. Two species of other beetles (Calliandra) also injure 

 palms. 



