MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 889 



1 should describe the altitude as tolerant. This latter was evidently 

 the female. 



When I separated the couple, the male, the aggressor as I thought at 

 the time, seemed much distressed and dashed about in search of the other, 

 without concern or fear of the compulsive interfering agency, and as soon 

 as he found her again, repeated his previous actions. The female made no 

 real attempt to evade the other or prevent her legs being pinioned. So far 

 as I saw the caudal flagellum of either never came into play. 



Not knowing what was afoot, I did not wait for final developments, but 

 after watching the couple for a short time, and what I took for an 

 engagement being apparently somewhat in the nature of a " Tweedledum" 

 combat, I stopped further display in good spirits. 



C. E. C. FISCHER. 

 Coimbatore, 3rd October 1910. 



No. XLI V.— CURIOUS GROWTH OF THE PALMYRA PALM 

 BORASSUS FLABELLIFER, Linn. 



Mr. Douglas in his interesting book about " Bombay and Western India " 

 in alluding to a visit he once paid to the Tansa Valley in the Thana 

 District, writes as follows, regarding the numerous Palmyra Palm trees 

 {Borassus Jlabellifer, Linn.) which he noticed on the way (pages 293-294 

 Volume II) : — 



" The only noteworthy objects are hybrid trees, which are remarkable 

 enough even in India. Grafting, as a rule, applies to trees of the same 

 order, but this is not without exception. But what do our readers think of 

 a ficus with a palm which, as a friend observes, must be the centaur of the 

 vegetable world ? 



"The first specimen met with I set down as a lusus naturae, but further 

 on they became as thick as blackberries. 



" Take one of the pollard willows of Oxfordshire, or a tufted elm from 

 Richmond Hill, lop its head off 20 feet from the ground and join on the 

 upmost 40 feet of a palmyra palm, and you have our friend of the Tansa 

 Valley. Not weakly either, but strong and vigorous specimens of the palm 

 tree flourishing. We were told that these are not cultivated, and the line 

 of contact is not visible to the naked eye. We throw out this nut to 

 crack by some of our Bombay botanists or others interested in Indian 

 arboriculture." 



The phenomenon which Mr. Douglas observed is probably one which 

 could be explained by most District Officers interested in the study of the 

 Natural History of Plants. The so-called hybrid trees, mentioned by him, 

 are very common in the Western parts of the Thana District, in the 



