486 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



are rose coloured, softened by silvery pubescence, and ultimately change to 

 salmon colour ; they may be seen in company with the ripening fruit of the 

 previous year, which consists of subcylindrical woody pods 1 foot in length by 

 1 inch in thickness, having two thickened sutures and transverse striae and 

 containing a pulp between the seeds with an odour similar to that of Bawa. 



Cassia marginata, Roxb., is much better known in this country ; it is a native 

 of Ceylon : a specimen in the Bund Garden at Poona has long attracted great 

 attention by its graceful foliage, which is very similar to that of the last men- 

 tioned tree, and its very numerous flowers, in colour, pink, marked with greenish 

 veins, produced during July-August. As it is fully described in Roxburgh's 

 Flora Indica, it is only necessary to note a few of the points of distinction 

 between this species and C. grandis, Linn. 



Cassia grandis C. marginata. 



Flowering Season March-April July-August. 



Stipules cuneate ^ inch Semi-saggitate with curved points, 



that is, resembling the Italic letter f. 



Both species thrive at Poona with occasional irrigation. Cassia marginata 

 blooms from its third year, if well grown, and is natm'ally of very graceful 

 habit. Its erect stem clothed to the ground with slender ascending branches 

 may well be left untouched by the pruning knife. 



G. MABSHALL WOODROW. 



Poona, December, 1891. 



No. II.— BRANCHING PALMS AND TREE-FERNS. 

 In Vol. III. of this Journal, p. 250, Mr. W. E. Hart gives a " Note on some 

 Branching Palms," and illustrates two of these, both Date Palms. In Vol. IV. 

 of the same Journal Mr. W. F. Sinclair, Bo. C.S., gives a note on a many 

 bi-anched Areca-Nut Palm. Lastly, in Vol. V. of the Journal the present 

 writer refers to certain branching Tree -Ferns seen or heard of by him in Sikkiin. 

 The subject is such an interesting one, that it may be of advantage to draw 

 attention to two papers on the subject that I have lately happened to light upon. 

 The first is " On Branched Palms in Southern India," by S. Pulney Andy, 

 M. D., F. L. S., &c, Travancore, in The Transactions of the Linnean Society of 

 London, Vol. XXVI., p. 661 (1867). A plate (LI) is given, and illustrates a 

 branched Palmyra Palm fBorassus flabelliformis J "possessing entire branches 

 and four abortive — two on either side ;" another Palmyra representing a ramifi- 

 cation "principally into two, but in one instance into three branches;" lastly, 

 a Cocoa-nut Palm (Coco& nuciferaj, representing a dichotonious division. The 

 second paper is entitled "Notes on the Tree Ferns of British Sikkim, &c," by 

 John Scott, Curator of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, I.e., Vol. XXX., 

 p. 1 (1870). At page 16 Mr. Scott gives much interesting information 

 regarding the ramification of the stems. 



LIONEL de NICEVILLE, F.E.S., C.M.Z.S., &c. 

 Calcutta, November, 1891, 



