156 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
ABNORMAL BRANCHING IN A PALM. 
By A. A. Hanmivron. 
A plant of the Curly Palm (Howea Belmoreana) with an 
abnormally forked stem is at present growing in the apex of a 
plantation in the vicinity of the entrance gates to the Garden 
Palace grounds, Sydney. There is no evidence of injury, and 
the position of the branch indicates its derivation from an avxil- 
lary adventitious bud rather than apical division of the stem 
(meristematic dichotomy). A branching habit from either the 
horizontal (rhizomatic) or aerial stems is the normal condition 
in the majority of palms, the genera in which individuals are re- 
stricted to a single unbranched stem being comparatively few. 
The Sago Palm (Metroxylon sagu), whieh forms dense forests in 
muddy tidal marshes in the tropics, is renewed vegetatively, the 
fleshy rhizome which lies slightly embedded in the soft mud 
producing aerial stems at intervals. The latter are several years 
attaining maturity, when they flower, fruit, and die (mono- 
carpic). Worsdell (Principles of Plant Teratology, v. i., p. 110, 
1915) suggests that branching is an ancient feature in palms, 
and abnormal oceurrences of this habit may be regarded as re- 
versions. In a paper on “The Phenomena Concerned in the 
Production of Forked Palms,” Morris (Journ. Linn. Soe, V. 
Xxix., p. 281, 1892), gives a list (p. 286), of 10 genera in which 
abnormally branched palms have been observed, including the 
Nikau Palm of New Zealand Rhopalostylis sapida, and in an 
added note (p. 298) refers to a plant of Livistona humulis 
R. Br., with four distinct branches, mentioned by Maurice 
Holtze in a “Narrative of an Exploring Expedition across Mel- 
ville Island, north of Port Darwin.” (Trans. Roy. Soe. S.A., V. 
15, p. 117.) Morris comments, “This is apparently the only 
instance of a branched palm in Australia.” Ridley, on “Braneh- 
ing in Palms” (Annals of Botany, xxi., 415, 1907) adds six 
genera to the list compiled by Morris, in which abnormal branch- 
ing is known to have occurred. The genus Howea is not inciud- 
ed in either of these lists, and the plant under review provides a 
new record of this rare occurrence in Australian Palms. The 
most obvious morphological distinction between the Curly Palm 
and its congener, the Flat or Thatched Palm (HH. Fosteriana) is 
the arrangement of the segments. of the leaves, those of ZZ. 
Belmoreana converging upwards and giving the leaf the curly 
twist implied by its popular name, while the leaf segments of H. 
