Ridley . — Branching in Palms . 419 
years ago, which bifurcated rather high up, and produced two strong 
equal stems. This specimen was sent to the British Museum. 
In the Johore specimen it appears from the slight flattening of the 
stem below the mass of roots that this branching is due to fasciation and 
not to simple axillary buds, as is commonly seen in coco-nut palms, where 
the branches are often at least distinctly alternate or in simple pairs. 
Morris, in his paper on branched and forked palms, mentions a few 
instances of branched betel-nuts, one dichotomously branched at Trevan- 
drum (South India) and one simply branched with two stems at Cayenne. 
One in Tangire described by Mr. Sinclair more resembles the Johore 
specimen. It had been attacked by a disease called Band, which had 
killed many trees in the vicinity, and its top nearly died away, and 
was replaced by fifteen to eighteen tops growing in a flat close 
bundle, so that they could not be counted separately without climbing 
the tree. 
Chrysalidocarpus lutescens (PI. XXXV) is a Madagascar palm often 
cultivated here. It forms large tufts branching from the roots and attain- 
ing a height of 12 feet or more. In one clump in the Botanic Gardens 
in 1894 I found a number of branching stems. Axillary buds were pro- 
duced at various heights from the ground. They were emitted at the 
nodes, and usually slender here, at first more or less horizontal, then 
ascending and dilating so as often, in early stages, to be fusiform in out- 
line. One emitted roots from its lower nodes, which did not reach the 
ground. There were often two of these branches on the stem, and not 
rarely they again branched. The terminal bud of the main stem was 
uninjured, and the branches were often much below it, and much shorter. 
Most of these branches died away after a time, but one or two still remain 
on the clump (1906), and have grown to be almost equal to the main 
stem in height, so that the stem appears to have bifurcated. The clump 
which produced most of these shoots is somewhat weakly, compared 
with others in the garden, and I have noticed the same tendency to 
throw out side-shoots from the axils in ill-nourished plants of Dypsis 
madagascariensis. The sketches in Plate XXXV are all from the same 
clump of the palm. 
Cocos nucifera . There are many more instances recorded of branching 
in coco-nut palms than in any other species of palms. This is doubtless 
due in great measure to the large number of plants in cultivation and to 
their being very conspicuous and noticeable when branched. Still, in pro- 
portion to the number of trees in cultivation, the percentage of branched 
trees is not large. ‘ The characteristic feature in branched coco-nuts is 
the simple fork,’ says Morris, and he goes on to suggest that the cause 
may be due to development of a lateral bud, as in Hyphaene , or be con- 
sequent upon injury to the terminal bud ; ‘ in the latter case the terminal bud 
