Branching in Palms. 
BY 
H. N. RIDLEY, F.R.S. 
With Plates XXXIV-XXXIX. 
HE occurrence of abnormal branching of the stem in certain palms 
-A- has not unfrequently been recorded and figured in a variety of 
publications, and most of what had been recorded was summed up by 
Dr. Daniel Morris in his paper ‘ On the Phenomena concerned in the 
Production of Forked and Branched Palms ’ (Journ. Linn. Soc., xxix 
(1892), p. 381). Having had for eighteen years the opportunity of observ- 
ing these abnormalities in the Eastern tropics in palms both wild and 
cultivated, I am enabled to add some descriptions of branching and the 
production of bulbils in various kinds of palms. 
Morris describes the growth of palms as the continuous development 
of a single monopodial bud, and says that palms have normally an un- 
branched caudex ; but I believe that the greater number of palms are 
really branched at the base at least, and that cases where there is but 
one axis produced are rather a departure from the normal. 
In many genera we find palms which never produce more than one 
stem from a single seed, side by side with others which habitually produce 
lateral buds. Thus we have 
With one stem 
Caryota urens. 
With several stems. 
C. mitis. 
E. stenophylla. 
A . triandra. 
R. Hookeri. 
C. plumosa (occasionally). 
Euterpe oleracea . 
Areca Catechti. 
Raphia Ruffia . 
Cocos nucifera. 
The commonest form of growth in palms is that seen in the soboli- 
[ Annals of Botany, Vol. XXI. No. LXXXIII. July, 1907.] 
