252 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
A few months ago there appeared in the Times of India the follow- 
ing account of what seems to be acelebrated specimen of a branching 
betel-nut palm: “A famous forked palm of Cayenne is giving 
signs of weakness. It has been proposed to cut it down, and pre- 
serve the trunk in the Natural History Museum at Paris after 
being shown in the World’s Fair in 1889. This remarkable tree 
belongs to the genus areca, is about 100 feet high, and divides at a 
height of about 30 feet, the two stems being equal in height and 
diameter, and flourishing and fructifying like two isolated trees. The 
vegetable phenomenon is in a grove with some 400 other palms and 
shows nothing abnormal save its twin stems.” 
A still more curious instance is that of the wild date (Phenix 
sylvestris) mentioned by Brandis, at p. 553 of his Forest Flora of 
North-West and Central India, as “ growing in the Residency 
Garden at Indore, with a trunk 22 feet high to the first branch, 
and with 22 vertical closely packed branches.” This specimen is 
also described according to Brandis, in the Gardener’s Chronicle of 
1874, p. 116, and our Honorary Secretary informs me that it is 
figured in the Agri-Horticultural Society’s Journal 4. N.S. of 1878, 
but I have been unable to lay my hands on either of these works. 
The accompanying illustration of the above mentioned tree is from 
a photograph obtained with the kind assistance of Mr. L. S. 
Newmarch. I am also informed by our Honorary Secretary, 
who recently visited Indore, that there are now only 12 branches, 
and that the tree shows no signs of having ever been cut for toddy. 
Two instances of abnormal division in the stems of the common 
wild date (Pheenia sylvestris) have come under my own notice in 
Bombay. 
One is in the compound of the bungalow belonging to the estate 
of the late Mr. A. G, DeGa, in which [ am at present residing, on 
Altamont Road, Cumballa Hill. The other is in the compound of 
the house on the Pedder Road, formerly known as Sea Scale, when 
it was the residence of Mr. Wordsworth, but now called Sea Gale, 
and in the occupation of Mr. Nowrojee N. Wadia. 
The former of these two specimens is a few yards to the north of 
my stable, close to the west side of Altamont Road. The treeis appa- 
rently of considerable age, and bears the marks of deep incisions for 
toddy. After growing in the usual way to a height of nearly 20 
feet the stem has branched into four. The ramifications do not 
radiate from the axis of the original stem but are thrown out, so to 
