MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 107 



11.— A VARIETY OF BUTE A FRONDOS&. 



With the uiontli of March the glory of the Pallas [Bu/ea frondasa) is rapidly 

 passing away. Before it disappears entirely I should like to bring to the notice 

 of the Society a curious and beautiful sport of the tree which is to be occasionally 

 seen in this- neighbourhood. Lfc is very rare, and 1 have personally seen only one 

 tree in hundreds of miles travel, but I have heard that others exist. Instead of 

 the dazzling blaze of orange with which we are all so familiar, this tree blossoms 

 into a pale yellow. The basis of the petals are primrose yellow, and they shade 

 oft* to a creamy tint on the edges and on their reverse sides. The corolla contrasts 

 everv beautifully with its rich olive-brown downy calyx. Except in the colour 

 of the corolla, the tree seems to be in all respects precisely the same as the common 

 Pallas. It is the first of the kind I have seen after 20 years' residence in India, and 

 it is certainly very uncommon, for the books do not mention it. 



I have six seedlings of last rains in my gardens from seeds reputed to have 



been gathered from a yellow tree. 



H. T. OMMANNEY, 



Bo. G. S. 

 God-lira, Punch- Mahals, 1st March, 1891. 



III.— HARPOONING CROCODILES, 



Captain G. Sutton-Jones, of the Deoli Irregular Force, who is a keen 

 sportsman, sends us an account of the method adopted by him of destroying 

 crocodiles in village tanks. The presence of these loathsome reptiles in village 

 tanks and reservoirs is, as far as we know, productive of nothing but evil, as they 

 are most destructive to the fish and. wild fowl, and not infrequently drag goats and 

 even children into the water. 



Captain Sutton-Jones writes as follows : — 



" The rainfall in these parts being far below the average, the water in the 

 tanks is clear, and in few instances more than eight feet in depth. I was accom- 

 panied by Captain Penrose, of my Regiment, our chief intention being to shoot 

 in the neighbouring jungles, and we only spent an hour or two with the crocodiles 

 in the morning and evening before and after shooting. 



" The modus operandi was simple. Our harpoon had a movable head, with a 

 ring at the end, to which about 50 yards of rope were attached and coiled neatly 

 in the boat (a small flat-bottomed iron punt). The shaft of the harpoon was a 

 well-seasoned bamboo about 10 feet in length. Our shikari was a man of the 

 ' Keer' or fisherman caste, by name Gopala. One of us accompanied Gopala in 

 the boat and punted quietly about the tank, carefully looking amongst the 

 openings in the weeds for the crocodiles which we found lying at the bottom of 

 the water in fancied security. It was an easy matter to drive the harpoon into 

 the reptile and to withdraw the bamboo shaft It was then necessary to retreat 

 quickly, as a pair of snapping jaws came up to the surface ready to seize anything. 



