4i8 
Ridley . — Branching in Palms. 
The following is a list of all the branching palms known to me, includ- 
ing those in Morris’s list : — 
Areca Catechu. 
Rhopalostylis sapida. 
Dictyosperma album. 
Oncosperma jilamentosa. 
Dypsis pinnatifrons. 
Oreodoxa regia. 
Leopoldinia pidchra. 
Chrysalidocarpus lutescens. 
Phoenix , most species. 
N annorrhops Ritchie ana. 
Hyphaene thebaica , H. coriacea , H. Petersiana , normally branched. 
Borassus flab elli for mis. 
Cocos nucifera. The commonest recorded. 
L ivistona humilis. 
Calamus leptospadix . 
Plectocomia Grijflthii. 
Of these it may be noticed that the greater number were cultivated or 
planted away from their original home, viz. Areca , Dictyosperma (in one 
case at least), Phoenix dactylifera , Cocos, Chrysalidocarpus , Oncosperma 
jilamentosa , Dypsis , Borassus (in most instances), and Calamus leptospadix ; 
and the best shoot-bearing Plectocomia I have seen in an abnormal 
position in open ground in the Botanic Gardens. While of the others, 
N annorrhops, Rhopalostylis , Hyphaene, Borassus, Livistona humilis occur 
on the furthest limits of the palm regions, where palms are very scanty, 
and where the climate appears generally to be dry and the soil rocky or 
sandy, viz. Afghanistan, New Zealand, Africa, and North Australia. 
Areca Catechu (PI. XXXIV). Among the curiosities brought to the 
recent Agri-Horticultural Exhibition in Singapore was a very remarkable 
specimen of a betel-nut palm {Areca Catechu) from Pulau Kukub in Johore, 
sent by the late Mohammed Alsagofif. The tree had been cut down, and 
shows a lower portion about 3 feet long and 6 inches in diameter, of nine 
internodes, of which the upper one is somewhat dilated and flattened. 
Above this is a broad mass of roots, 1 6 inches wide and about a foot long, 
from which spring five almost parallel erect branches, 24 feet long to the 
leaves. All the branches are approximately equal in size, and bear well- 
developed leaves and inflorescences. At 15 feet from the mass of roots 
one of them emits a lateral branch, about 6 feet long, bearing leaves. The 
branching of the betel-nut palm is, I believe, very rare ; I have only seen 
one other instance, that of a specimen shown at a Penang exhibition many 
