SHORT NOTES. 104 
price of 100 dollars. It would. be very interesting to work out 
the anatomy of such curious phenomena as these. It is possible 
that the flower spikes were formed in the ovary long before, 
something after the manner of a monstrosity sometimes met 
with among the crucifere (Mustard, and Turnip), where the 
fruit has been found to contain flowers instead of seed, but it 
seems more likely that it is a case of extreme precocity, where 
the young plant for some reason has begun to flower years 
before it might be expected to. 
H. Noe 
The White-winged Bat in Singapore. 
The very curious and beautiful white-winged bat, Tapho- 
cous affinis, hitherto only known from Labuan and Sumatra, 
proves also to be an inhabitant of Singapore, a specimen having 
been captured at light in the Botanic gardens after a heavy 
storm of rain. It is a fairly large bat, the head and back of a 
deep brown colour, with a few white spots on the head, and 
the whole of the chest and abdomen covered with beautiful silky 
white fur. The wings at the base are black, gradually passing 
into white, so that the greater part of the membrane is white. 
The animal is also remarkable for the tail, which is rather long, 
passing through the membrane connecting the feet, (a character 
common to the group of bats to which it belongs, but of this 
group we have very few species here), and another remarkable 
peculiarity is the possession of a small pouch beneath the chin, 
the use of which is by no means clear. 
It is possible that this bat is not so rare here as might be 
supposed from this being the first recorded capture in the Malay 
Peninsula, as I have seen several very light-coloured bats flying 
over the reservoir, which looked suspiciously like the white- 
winged bat. 
Hyblea puera cram. 
While travelling in the Dindings and Province Wellesley 
in the spring of 1897, I was struck by the appearance of the 
mangrove swamps near Prai and along the Bruas river, whole 
patches of which. were absolutely bare of leaves, and looked as 
if they had been burnt. In some spots miles of trees were 
quite leafless, while in others only isolated patches were at- 
