The Hanging Foliage of certain 
Tropical Trees. 
BY 
F. W. KEEBLE, B.A., 
Frank Smart Student, Gonville and Cams College , Cambridge. 
With Plate IV. 
HE habit whereby the young leaves and branches of 
-i- certain tropical trees hang vertically downward during 
the early stages of their existence has been frequently 
described in recent years 1 . 
The trees thus characterized belong, with but one excep- 
tion so far as I have been able to ascertain, to the group 
Caesalpinieae of the order Leguminosae. Such are Amherstia 
nobilis , various species of Brownea (e.g. B. grandiceps , B. 
coccinea , B. hybrida ), Humboldtia laurifolia , Saraca indica , and 
S', dec tin at a, Maniltoa gemmipara , Cynometra caitliflora and 
Calophyllum bracteatum (Guttiferae). The last-named is a 
rare plant peculiar to Ceylon, and no opportunity of specially 
examining it occurred to me. 
The three first-named trees, Amherstia nobilis , species of 
Brownea , and Humboldtia laurifolia , are those on which 
experiments and observations were made. 
1 Cf. Figs, i and 2. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. IX. No. XXXIII. March, 1895.J 
