HEREDITARY DISEASE OF FICUS TSIELA. 79 



the upper extremity of tlie branchlets still bear leaves. By this 

 glow and steady process, the whole branch dies in the space of two, 

 three, or more years. It appears that in the inferior, almost dead, 

 part there are still some more or less altered vessels capable of 

 carrying scanty nutriment from the trunk towards the few living 

 leaves, and the sap elaborated by these back towards the trunk. 



As to the history, no Indian botanist out of so many has made even 

 a passing allusion to this abnormality. Dr. King, Superintendent 

 of the Calcutta Royal Botanic Garden, who is the only one who 

 alludes to it in his comprehensive monograph on the species of the 

 genus Fims says: — "All the specimens which I have seen issued by 

 Wallich as 4,503, letter C, consist however of a sport oi the tribe with 

 small leaves and greatly elongated petioles which is not uncommon 

 on old trees. This sport forms curious tufts on the ends of some of the 

 branches, and can be seen growing in abvmdance in Madras. " This 

 is copied in Sir J. Hooker's Flora of British India. Dr. King does 

 not state whether these tufts, which he calls sports, appear in wild as 

 well as in cultivated trees, and whether they are to be seen in Beno-al. 

 Dalzell and Gibson, the authors of the Bombay Flora, say that Fic7is 

 tsiela, Roxb., is a very common tree in this Presidency as it is in other 

 parts of India and Ceylon, but do not allude to the extraordinary 

 phenomenon. May the silence of all the authors be due to the Ficus 

 in the wild state being free from the disease, and appearing only 

 in the planted trees in the Poona district and in Madras ? Why 

 should this be so ? Again, may it be that the disease had not appeared 

 in this Presidency at, the time the authors of the Bombay Flora 

 were living in this country, whilst it existed in Madras during the 

 lifetime of Dr. Wallich ? These are questions which must occur to 

 many, and which, I regret, I am not in a position to answer. I have 

 not observed this phenomenon in any other species belonging to the 

 fig tribe, or to any other tribe or genus, though they may be seen 

 growing in close proximity to Ficus tsiela. The disease, is, I think, 

 hereditary, because it appears on trees grown from seedlings, or from 

 healthy branches, but apparently it is neither infectious nor con- 

 tageous, nor does it arise from the condition of the soil. 



Many intelligent Europeans and Natives, who had noticed the green 

 mass or tuft of leaves on the Pipree tree, had attributed it to some 



