MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 96o 



symmetrical ; less sculptured and consequently more shining. The concen- 

 tric Mnes of growth are strongly marked in peilei, but there is" no trace of the 

 strong radiating strise so noticeable in indecora and in the British species turtoni, 

 and it is only under a high magnifying power that extremely fine and close 

 scratches, uniform over the whole surface, become visible. The pitting is much 

 less than in indecora, being close and strong in the umbonal region, but de- 

 creasing in numbers and strength, and finally disappearing a short way from the 

 ventral margin. 



Length of type specimen, 13 mm.; height, 6-5 mm. 



Habitat : Bombay, under stones at low water (Lt.-Col. A. J. Peile, R.A.). 



Type : In British Museum. 



Superficially this species has a very similar appearance to our British Gale- 

 omma, but differs totally fi-om it in sculpture. 



Referring to the above. Col. Peile writes as follows : — 

 The members of the genus Galeomma are remarkable among bivalves for 

 their structure and habits. In the first place the animal lives with its valves 

 spread wide open and cHngs in this position to the surface of rocks and stones. 

 Further, the British species is said to be capable of crawling rapidly, casting 

 oS the byssus by which it was fixed in repose and rapidly forming another on 

 coming again to rest. The name Galeomma (weasel's eye) would appear to 

 have been bestowed on account of the wide open shell: indeed, if the valves 

 of an empty shell be approximated, there is still a wide gapo at the ventral 

 margin. 



Further specimens of the new Bombay species would be most welcome. 



Eds. 



No. XXXII.— NOTE ON THE COTTON TREE [BOMB AX 

 MALABARICUM). 



I have to-day despatched to yom' address a packet containing a flower and a 

 bud of Bombax malabaricum, D. C. (The Cotton tree, Hindi : Aimar). In the 

 description of the characters of the order 3Ialvacece (to which this species be- 

 longs) given in Hooker's Flora of British India, the pollen grains are said to be 

 elobose and muriculate but I have in this species found them not to be so, but 

 to be minutely tubercled and equilaterally triangular, or 3-lobed and thick, 

 or tetrahedral with triangular faces. 



An examination of the poUen grains in the flower sent in the packet will bear 

 out my observation. 



SiMULTALA, E. I. Ry., GIRINDRA H. BANNERJI, b.a. 



BiHAB, March 1921. 



Prof. Halberg who examined Mr. Bannerji's specimens makes the following 

 observations': — " The observation is correct, we have a shde of the pollen grains 

 of the plant. They are distinctly trigonous. The shape given in Hooker 

 shotdd be corrected' but it is to be noted that the shape of the grain may alter 

 by the medium in which they are. The chief characteristic feature of the pollen 

 grains of the Malvaceae is their shining appearance." 



Eds. 



