254 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
From all these facts I am inclined to infer, first, that these 
abnormal so-called ‘ branches” are not ramifications in the strict 
sense of the word. That is, they are not lateral growths from a main 
stem which continues growing, but are divisions of the original stem 
itself; secondly, that all these divisions, whatever their number, ori- 
ginated simultaneously from the same cause; thirdly, that this cause 
also resulted in the disappearance of the first head of foliage which 
originally crowned the single stem. 
The question then arises, what is the cause? This is not with- 
out an economic interest, for it is clear that if the cause be one 
capable of artificial application, it might be possible to double or 
quadruple the yield of fruit, nuts, or toddy, from a single tree. 
Several possible causes suggestthemselves. Stewart in his Panjab 
Plants, p. 244, as quoted by Brandis in the page already cited of his 
Forest Flora, supposes that “the branches are merely apparent, caused 
by seeds germinating in the axils of the petioles.” Brandis, how- 
ever, regards this theory as improbable. Certainly it would be diffi- 
cult, on this supposition, to account for the facts above noticed 
of the apparent identity in age of the branches and the disappear- 
ance of the original crown of foliage. 
But the abnormal branching might be due to atavism, or “ throw- 
ing back,” toa primeval type of ancestral palm, which naturally 
branched, a lineal descendant of which has survived in the Doum palm, 
or it might be an effort of evolution in the direction of development 
towards a branching type. 
This raises a very interesting question in Darwinism with which 
I fear I am hardly competent todeal. The solution of it would seem 
to depend ina great measure on whether we are to regard the natur- 
ally branching palm as the survival of an ancient type or the 
development of a new one. 
Judging from what we know of palzsontological botany it would 
appear that the evolution ofthe dicotyledonous type from the acrogens’ 
through the cycadacew was already complete before the appearance 
of the palms. For besides their mosses, ferns, reeds, and cycades, . 
we find in the coal measuresof Great Britain, numerous remains of 
conifers and true exogenoustrees. But it is not tillthe Tertiary period 
that there occurs any abundance of palms. From this I would infer that 
the palm does not come in as a link in the chain of the evolution of 
the dicotyledonous trees, and therefore that the branching of the 
palms is not to be regarded as an effort towards such evolution. 
