80 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



parasitic plant growing from it, and some liad even gone so far as to 

 aver that similar phenomena (balls) might be observed on the mango 

 tree, but when asked to produce specimens they brought a mass of 

 Loranthus longiflonis, Desv., &c. I do not deny that the mango may 

 not be attacked by the same or a disease similar to the one I am 

 describing, but I must confess that as yet I have not seen a single 

 well authenticated case. 



Dr. King is, as you must have observed, of opinion that the condi- 

 tion of some branches and leaves above described is a sport. To this 

 opinion are opposed the following facts : — Sports are almost always 

 vigorous growths or off- shoots which appear in a vigorous branch of 

 a healthy tree, this being generally young. Now the abnormal con- 

 dition of branches of the Pipree tree appears almost always in an 

 old tree, the leaves of which are always of a pale yellowish colour, 

 branches dying sooner than the unaffected ones. At first only one 

 green ball is seen upon a tree, but as the years roll on and the tree 

 becomes older, it bears several such tufts. 



I am inclined to think that this state of branches is a chronic and 

 hereditary disease which in its course resembles cancer in the human 

 body. This, as is well known, affects at first a certain part, say a' 

 female breast, and makes at first a slow progress, affecting one portion 

 after another till the whole breast is destroyed by the mass of disease 

 consisting mainly of adventitious cells. At advanced stages this 

 -dire disease extends to the glands in the axils, and takes all the 

 malignant forms of certain tumours, and appears simultaneously or 

 successively in various parts of the body. 



The nodose branches resemble the nodose condition of the feet and 

 toes of men suffering from elephantiasis of long standing. No cause 

 can be assigned to this affection. Although carefully sought no insect 

 agency producing the knotty swelling has been discovered. Dr. W. 

 Dymock thought that it might be the result of an insect which he 

 found in one dead branch submitted to his examination ; subsequently 

 careful examination revealed that it had accidentally gone into 

 the interior of the wood from the basket in which it was enclosed. 

 Mr. Woodrow, Professor of Botany and Agriculture of the Poena 

 College of Science, examined under the microscope some branches 

 without any result. 



