78

. The type of the first of these two names came fl'<lm Limnn Tua, upon the east .of Kuala Lumpur in Selmgor: and that of the second from Tanjong M:aliim on the Selangor-Perak border. Jt extends southwards and has been found at 'Pul all Sebang in ]\I[alacca (Bm'kill 4960') . As a medicinal herb, foliage has beNt got from Grik illl northern P erak; and in :Pahalllg from Buclu in the K uala Lipis district, from BeSel'all in the Kuantan clistrid, and from Bentong. ]\1[1'. Ridley records O. spinulosa as occurring in 'r on kin also.

The chief use that the Malays make of it is as a poultice 1'01'

t he ripening of boi:ls; but it ill also given internally untler the i(lea that it is good for expelili'D<g worms, and as one of the ilillumerable hm'bs administered speculatively to women during the first three days 'after childbirth. It is again reported as one of several plants which at Grik are used in a; 'decoction for a bath during fever . .

The difference between O. suffm,ticosa and O. sp'ill Itlosn is said to be i"l the inflorescence : but there i's none : in both it is cymose • . It was in flower and fruit as Tanjong iVfalim in February' l!JOJ, in bud at Dusun Tua in ]\I[ay 1896 and in flower at Pulau Sabang in Augn t 1919,

1. H . BURTCILT"

Teratological Notes

A.- Abnormalities in Coconut Palms.

I. Polyembryony. On p, 275 of this Bullet'in, VoL III, iii; was sta,ted that the various references which had be~n consulterT by me vn the question of polyembryony . ill coconut>; wer~ not sufficiently claM' as to make one to be quite positive about t·hr. occurrence of the phenomen on ihl coconuts. ,Cases, however, have come to my notice which prove beyond all doubt that polyembryony does occur in coconuts, .

The ovary of coconuts, -j,t wm be remembered, ill three-cclied, two of which usually become abortive at 'an early stage of dev€. lopment, only one attaining maturi ty. 'The fruit consists of it thin outer skin or ep'icG1'p, below which is the th ick fibrous mcsoc{tl'll surrounding the hard shell or the stony hayer of the llUt. 'This shell is formed mainly of the endoca1'P~ but the outer int8gument of the seed is also represented in it a a lign ified iruler lin ing of the shell (fide Juliano)', Inside this stony layer i6 the solid

1. Juliano, J. B.-Origin, Development, al1cl Nature of the Stony L ayer' of th e Coconut (Cocos nucifera L,), Philippine J Durn, Sci" XXX ( 1926), p , 187·200, pI. 3 ,

"Vinton, A.L.-AJl::ltomy of the ~"ruit of Uo~os ltueifel'a. Am" JOll:rn~ Sci" XII (1901), 265·280, Quoted by J . B. Juliano.

79

endosperm which is t~e kernel or "meat" in. common. parIa~ce nnel wh.ich is lined outslde by n thm blackish coatmg. Thls coatmg _we may as well call it "tesba "-is derived from tlw inner in­tegument of the ovule (Juliano') . Then comes the cavity pa.rtjallT filleel with wa.ter or "mIlk" (watery endosperm) III J'lpe coconuts. Corresponding to the three carpels of the ovary, . there are three' mlU·k.inO"s or "eyes" on the endocarp, two of whIch have become' h!Ul:d after t he degeneration of the two cells of the ovary, wh.ile tile third" eye " of the eleveloped celli is 150ft. Just beneath t.his "eye " . is the embryo. When the germinat.ion sets i'll, a stlctori'11 organ­hausilJ'ritl.!m or "foot "-develops into the ~a ~'ity, at the end of the cotyledon of the embryo, which supplies nutriment to the young: g:OWillg plant Iby absol'bing it frCilll the eudoS/perm.

Bearinlg these points in mind, it will he r:flSY to ~tud:y the­nature of the phenomena concerned in the C118es des'Ol'ibeu below :-

(a) .-On July 25th, 1925, there was exhi'l,itell at the 'raiping Agl'i-Horticultural Show, a germiJlJa:tilng coconut from Ru.mpong .Tclutong, Bukit Gu.ntang, North Perak, which ha(l put forth tlnee shoots. The coconut was careinHy husked by me to find the i hree shoots -as distinct indi'Vi;clual-s -as far as the soft" eye" throllgh which they had extmdcd from the enc1ocarp. The two other " eyes" were closec1 anc1 hard as in an orc1inary nut ,,'here two carp cIs m'e abortive. On breaking the nut open, ilt was obEerveo. that ealCh shoot had its origin in a separate embryo, each having a cotyledon and 3J haustoriulll of. its own. Them was only one cavity in the endosperm into which these thTee haustoria had de l' e­loped, ancl the.re were neither hard, nor lc?thery c1issepiments in it which m'e said to be presmlt in a polycellular nut." 'rhe kernel inside also showec1 no signs of any spccial connectioll with the cio ed "eyes" as it showed with the soft" eye." This is thcn a genuine case of polyembryony in coconuts.

I have also eXluilllinecl mallY such specimens having two to three emhryos from Singapore, Selangor, Pcnang ancl M:alac~a which go to prove that polyembryony does frequently o('cur in this. (:{Juntr.\'. Theoo -shoots mary' emerge out of the husk in all c1irectiOlls,. anel often i:n snchwise as to mislead one to think that these PXtl·:J.

shoots are due to the function.ing of more than one ovule. Henc;e J look with great suspicion on al~ the three cases mentioned from Ph.ilippines by Quisumbing' as ones where more than one ovule were functional.

• 2. Furtado, U. X.-Bra.nchecl Coconut Palms and their Fertility.

Gardens' Bull., Si.ngapore, Vol. ITI (1924), p. 1274.

3. QuiSWllbillg, E.-Branching in Coconut . Philippines Agr'iculturist, 'A'V (1926), p. 3 .. 1.

80

i have not yet come across in tills country a genuine case -where more than one ovule had developed gi,ing rilse to c1i-, tl'i-, 'Or polylocular nut, though such cases have been reported from ·elsewhere.' • "

(b) .-Costerus !IJld Smith (1923)" describe a ca3e of polye!n­-bryony in thus:-

"Legit H. A. B. Bunnemeyer, Isle of Nangka near J3anka, 1917. One celled nut. From o:ne of the black (gel'minating-) spots ther e emerged foul' sprouts each showing i,ts own (;otvle. No ·question of branching. Consequently we have here to do with a true caee of polyembryony.

"MT. Smith is thoroughly convinceel that the Coconut wi th tlll'ee cohering stems, whilCh we described in 1915, is after all a similar case of polyembryony with t his ditIerence only that the

·~mbryos of 1915 coalesced wher~as in the present caSB they have maintained tbeilr full independence."

The coconut referred to as ha,ing been clescribed in 19] il is 'One which had given rise to three sprouts and which on being (:a1'e­fully open'6d hael not shown ~D1y clissepiment whatsoever. "Only one germinating plant forcing its way through one of the black spots ,,·as to be seen, but the stem of this young plant showed a separation into three. The advanced state of (clry) specimen dirl not permit of a further examination into tbe cause of the pheno­mcnon, but of polyembryony there can be no question." No fur­ther eletaiJs or reasons are grl'en why Dr. f>mith thiub this to be 31 genuine case of polyembryony and not of fasciation 01' bra:nciling.

(c) .-In the Bot·anie Garelen, P'cl1ang, there is fL "coconut rrJa1m" which has three distinct inclivielual stems from the base . ]\I[r. Mohamed H alniff who has been 10llg conneetecl with . the ·garden, informs me that the tl~ree stems have orginated. from one ·coconut fruilt anel that it was planted there in 1901. OnIy two "stems are beaI~ng fruits, while the thircl one is yet barrell 'mel is also very much shorter thmn the other two. The sJUall g l" lwth of thi ti thi:rel stem is in all probability due to the fact that twice durin.g its growth it was very badly attlacked by borers (there are still marks on the palm of these attacks) . The injury can sed by the attacks must naive retarelecl the growth very consieleral.)ly, g iving thereby the other two ",tems a chance to overshadow this one and -to make its further development and production of flowers rather elifficult. The overshaelowing oauseel by another palm gro·wing close to it may be an aelelitional cause why tIllS stem is lI'eak anel lmertile. There is another similar paJm with two fertile, and

4. Costerus, J . C. 011(1 J. J. Smith.-Studies ill Tropical Teratology . .<In1lales J anZ. Bot. Buitella01·g, XXIX (1915), p. 84·85, and plates.

5. Ibid ibid -ibid XXXII (1923) , p. 26 and plates.

81

one barren, stems. in the Botanic Gardens Cooly Lines, Penang, which have originated ( fide Mr. R ani-II) also from one nut. The· short lII'1ld barren 'stem shows signs of injury in the past. In a private compound at Bllrma lioad, Pulau Tikus, Penang~ there is a tree about forty years old whlch has two stems, c11stlllct from the b811e, both of which are producilng fruits .

II . The Deve lopment o·f the Usually Abort ive Ovary in Male Flowers. A coconut spadix was exhibited at the Taiping

ho"', 1925, which had ·numerous banana-bke fruits and only two nuts of normal shape. The latter were borne i.n the regions of the pac1ix where n oo:mally female flowers are produced, while the­

former occupied the positions of male flowers. App<lrently this is a case simiilar to the one quoted on page 203 of this Bulletin, III, the banana-like fruits being the result of the development of the usuailly abortive. ova.1'y in mahl flowers .

II I. ,A lbino Coconut Seedlings. Tn the '!\tuping Show,. ) 925, there wel'e exhilbited two coconut fruits which bad put forth completely albino shoots. The albinism was apparenlly due to· some internal factor, and may be a case of chlorosis due to lack of fenuginous products in the endosperm. It could not be aitri'­buted to the htCk of l ight as the plants rec8ived ample sunlight at the show (and they must have been exposed during the tra.usit ) ,. and because normally .coconut seedlings germinated in darkneSS

. such a obtained in a closed house, have greenish leaves. Neither · nut had put forth any roots out 01 the. husk. From the shure,. size and colour, the nuts appeared to hJalVe come from the same· pac1ix. Further investigations on these aJ uts were not pos ible

as they weTe not for sale.

IV. Suppression of Spikelets in COCOllut Spadiceli. Ordilnarilya coconut inflorescence consists of many flower-bearing sJlikelets produced on .a fleshy ta]J" wh.ich usually does not bear any flowers. At the Agri-HO'rticuttmal Shows of Taiping and of KUllJa Lumpur, 1925, inflorescences were exhibilted which were mhnorlnal in t ha.t the axes W€Te unbranched, the flowers being borne· directly on them.

The flower-bearing region of one such specimen from Taiping measured three feet alld four inches, while the non-flowering por­tion towards the tip ""as nearly silK inches long, and towards the ba e oyer eight inches. The beari1llg portion of the stalk was occu­pied by female flowers which were more than a hundred in number. In the basal portion, the flowers were arranged in pairs, each pai r­being some distance apart from the other, and their arrangement Tesemhled that of the m aJe florets on the spikele'ts 01 normal in ­fiCirescences. The space between these pain-s of flower." gradually decreased towards the end so that in the upper third of the bearing stalk the female flowers were so thickly cro~\'ded togetber that ihey· did not admit any special relatilon between any two cOIlseculiYEl-

•

82

ilowers. On ma.ny of the cushion~ on wh ieh the pa:i r~ of female flowers weTe sea.ted, there were two maJe florets, one on ea.ch side of. the pain', while in the upper portion where the flowers were very close to ea.ch other one could notice occasionally one male floret between two consecutive fema.le flowers . All the ma.l<l flowers present at the time of exa.minilng the inflorescence had shed their pollen and 'were quite dry. Many of them dropp<ld down with a slight shake, lea.ving behind no clear marks or scars to show that they were present there. Like normal flClWers, they (male flowers) had six 'segments illl peria.ntb, six stamens and a. vestigial ovary.

All the female flowers examuled were morphologically normal, except tha.t the' papery yellow ring which is usna.lly Ionnd a.round the base of the ova.1')' wa.s <lccasionally adorned with teeth varyiug from one to six in number. (For the mOTphologi,ca.l valne 01 this ring see note on Hornea Coconuts). The development of these flowers was acropetal so that the youngest flo\vers were founa at the terminal end. Though many of the flowers towards the basal end had their stigmati,c portion ont of the peria11th envelop'" Ho,t a silngle one of them was ripe to receive pollen. 'rhis therefore means tha.t any nut developed on snch inflorescences would he a result of cross-pollina.tion, unless of comse they {lu'e fertilised by the pollen from another inflorescence on the same tree or by ponen from the same inflorescence which had retained i.ts vitality t ill the female flowers had become ready to receiv~ it. '1'11at similar in­florescences aa'e not iJllfertile was proved by two other snch in­florescences, one at Taiping ulld the other in Kua.la Lumpur. 'rhe 'I1miping specimen had three we1l-developecl nuts and the Ku&la Lumpur one had five, ill their ili,stal end.

Owing to the advance stages of all such inflorescences examinee TlO further details could be gathered as to the exact relation of the male to female flowers, or as to the nature of the phenomenoll (;O~­cerned in the monstrosity.

I was tolcl j,n Taiping tha.t the palms which produce these monstrous inflorescences have the habit of producing snch mon:;b'o­'sities many t imes during the course of a year. If so, it woulcl he -worth while to keep the palms under observatilon so ns to Etuely how tbese inflorescences originate, wha.t exactly is the composition '1lnd nature of the spathes enveloping them, of yOtlllg flowers, etc. Such a study may help to throw light liS the cause ancl the nahne ()f the phenomenon involved.

Costerus and Smith" who have had a better opportunity o·f studying such specimens record that all the female flowers in snch inflorescences they examined were paired, each female flower being

6. Costerus and Smith.-Anll. Jard. Bot., Buitenzorg, XXXII (19'23), p. 24·25 and plates.

83

flanked by two male florets, but that thesEl male florets soon perilShed. Similar jnflorescences having a side branch have occasionaJly .come to their notice.

V. Horned Coco·nuts. At the Malacca Agri-Hortik3ultural Show, 1926, three " horr~ ecl " coconuts (lcelctpa, twndok) were shown, each having a horn in appeara.nce similar to the husk. This horn ll1easUl'ed five inches in length, and .one ,anc1 one-fourth inches thilck in the central portion. It hac1 two SIll all 10be8 one on each side of the principal one which was large and thick. A co,)ious exuiNlItion of gmn was founc1 0 11 the inller sid.e of the horn (the ·side towards the nut), anc1 where there was gummy exudation, the epidermis of the horn seemed to be much a:ffectec1 lhough the epidermal ti-ssue of the nut appearec1 to be quite iDta ct. The perianth was then carefully removecl from the nut and it. was -feund that this horn was clue to the abnormal cl.evelopment of the one side of the papery ring that is usually found between the perianth and t he nut, the growth of the other hlaH of the ring ha\'ing l)ccome arrested at an earliel' stage, so that it was not visible when the perianth was still Iflittached to the nut. This porlilon of the ring also had one principal cemtl'al lobe which measured abou t one centimeter from the tip of the base, ancl two smaH slitghtly c1<'ve­loped ones, ancl it r esemblecl the perianth in texture. At the tip 0'[ the central lobe abundant exudation of gum was nob ced. The t hnlllllllus hacl als~ grown out a little more than usual, especially on the siele of the hol'll, so that the horn could be mi staken fIJI' a lJasal outgrowth of the nut. The horn when cut open was fOLl11cl to be full of fibrous tissue only, like that of the husk, while. the nut itself was normal ~lJ)d had all its three" eyes" as usual, The perianth consi/lted of six normal se"onlents. R enee the view put f01"wa1'(1 by Masters' t.ha,t these horns are clue to the hypertrophy of the perianth segments is untenable.

Peteh (1924)8 describes similal' cases of hornecl coconuts ancl mentions t hat ,tJle horns may very in number from six downwards and that they scmetimes coalesce in pmirs, or two or three may 11nite by theiJr t ips. Some of these horns may he fringed by a t.hin wing, resembling in texture the segments of the periilnth. In ,,]] such cases examiined by him perianth segment£ were also present and weTe normal.

'Costerus ancl Smith' figure somewhat similar cases ill the ]3Iuitenzorg Annales which they consider to be instances of

7, Masters, M. T ,-Vegetable Teratology ( 1869), pp. 428-429) .

8. Petch, T.-Hol'1le(l Ooconut. Y em··Book Dept. Of .LIg";c., Ceylon, (1924), p. 20-2l.

9. Costerus, .J, C. and ;T. ;T. Smith,~Stu(1ies in Tropical Teratology. Annules Jard. Buitenzorg, XXXIII (1923) , p. 95 and fig. 23.

84

apocarpy, but in the abseuce of a detailed description, those ca~es. cannot be comparee 1 with the above de cribeeI ones.

Petch seems to favolli: t he view that the horns are due to n duplicntion of the segments of the gynaecium. But I am inclined to adopt his less favoured view that the horns r epresent the :;ix stameJ1.6. The following will make ciear the position of my view :.

Examining flowers of coconut, one usu,~lly finds in the male, six perianth scgmcnts surrounding six stamem inside and n rudi­menta.ry pistil in the centre, and in the female, six periantb seg­ments, a fertile pistiil in the centr e, u.nd a papery ·ring between the base of the pistil and the inner periauth segments; tha.t is, the pa.pery ring occupies the pla.ce of the a.ndroeci,um ill t he 11:ale flower . :Ma.y not then this papery ring in, the fema.le flowers re­present the ancIroecilUll which in the course of evolution ha.s been reduced to thi'3 vestigial state? The fact that this papery ring is illvari~bly pr<!sent in the female fl ower, amI a vestigial ovary is the male flower, ancI that the ring is 11 growth quite dilstinct f rom the pcrianth and the ovary, lends support to th is vi'ew, And from the examination of the horned nuts exhibilted at the Mali1cc1L Show, it wa.s quite evident that the h 01"11S were due to the development of portion of the ring.

Gadd (1924)'0 describes abnormal female flowers of COl'Ol1ut where three carpels were fused only at the bafe, being f ree to a great­er or less extcnt at the apex, "Between the perianth and the gynaecium wa.s a ring of six pa.piIla.e, in a position whIch stamens would be expected to occupy, if present." The e flowers ~eem to re­present a somewhat earlier tage in the evolution of t.he relll'l.le flower of c('{)onut.

l~ecent histological studies made by Juliallo" regarding the on­togcnetical development of thc female coconut flower fi0'tn an addi­tional evidence in favour of the view that the papei'y Ting is a modified androeciUJll, He shows by meaus of mi>ere.tome sections tha.t the development of the flora l strnctures is acropebl, that is, the outer two prophylls are first d ifl'eren t iateil from the primOl'­a ium, thC'll the s,e'pals aJld the petals fullow i:u sllcces,;i on, Tile ring which he calls " 'al'il " arisc just after the iOl'lllation of the' petals but much before the primOl'ilium has diJIerentiated inD) an ovary and C'drpels. Hence thcrefore the r ing or the horns cannot he an outco~ue of the multiplication of the carpels.

10. Gacld, C. H.-.~ A1monn:tl Jnfiol"esceuee .from a :rllt. Y ear¥TJook, D C11t, of .dgrie" Ccy!on, (1924), 1', 2l-23 ,

11. .Juliano, .J. B.-Origin, Development, and Na.ture of the Stony L ayer of the Coconut. Philipp, J ourn, Sc", XXX (1926), p, 187-200 and. pI. 1-3,

-85

B.-Ananas sativa.

It is not uncommon to see various forms of monshosilties in ihe fruits (soroses) of pine-apples (A nana..s sativa) . Hitherto I Imve been the following abnormal forms in thi}:; Peninsa1a.:-- .

I. Fasciation. One of such monstrous pine-apple fruits had .cylindrical balSa a.bout tw;o inches long ane1 was much stouter th3m the fl,ierage fruits of the same va.riety. The fruit then showed a tendency to ta'per in one axis and expand in the other. The ex­pansion had occmred to such an enormous extent that it had given l·ise to everal twilltings and bendings. 1ieasm ements wi.t h a tape wo'ule1 indicarte that the topmost pa.r t of the f ruit had becwne mr)re than two feet in breadth, while its thickness had been reducec1 to about an inlCh or a little more. The foliose shoot that usua lly Cl'v,wns a pin&-apple fruit had also fascioated apace with the rrlLit. I ts ~'ertical axis had hecome abbreviated to 'a very considerable el.-tent and the lea~'es were reduced to meTe sca.les, about an illeh and half in length and half an inch in breadth, so that the expand ed apex of the fruit Ia.ppea.red as if fringed with these scaly lcayrlS. 'T!hi!; forms appears to be very rare in pine-a.pples.

Another form of fasciation that is more commonly met with in pine-appl~s i}s one which differs f rom the former in thai. t he Jruit in the loa,tter flattens to a less extent and proc1uces many cylinclrieal heads) ea.ch ,,"ith a normal or r educed crown of its OW11. I have seen pilne-apples with three, five and seven heac1s.

The thircl kinc1 of fasciation odl'ects the crown of the fruits only. In one such specimen the leafy crown had trili'uTcatec1, the fruit itself remaining normal That these three shoots were clue to fa ciatilJn of the mailn axis and Dot to the proliferation ot the two axillary shoots was easy to be seen as the leaves weTe rcc1uc3c1 to mall cales ~iDCl the lower portion of the stalk had become ~ e]'y much thicker.

Fasciation showi)ng var1011s grades of these three cases hflve been also observed.

II . Proliferation. .on the stalk hca.rilng the th~'ee-hea(l ec1 fasciatec1 fruit describec1 above, there were many, much proliIferat8d, vegetative shoots arising from the axiJs of the bracts. They had grown a, Long as the frnit itself, <l.ud were present only in the upper jlOl·tipn of the stalk, close to the base of the fruit, lower portion of the stalk booa'ing no such shoots.

In aJ10ther specimen there was a similar proliferation of shoots in the axils of bracts close to the fruj,t, but these shoots werlJ i'e­

proc1uctive so that t hey produced many banana-like, elongatec1 iruits :at the base of the ma.in frni,t .

:-.~ ... 86

Sometimes axillal,] shoots on the base of the leafy crown of tbe ~'j \1 '_piJlt:i-apple fruit grow very vigorously, eyen much faster than the

". Linai n sh 00 1 i tse,] f.

Prolilferation of vegetative shoots on the stR,lk or ou the crown or .the fruit i very co=on, almost a "normal" phenomenon in pi~e-apples . Production of fl'llills at the base of the principal fruit

, • ·lias been noticed by me only twice in this country . .. . . " C. X. FURTADO.

Dioscorea tamarisciflora, Pro and Bark. In September, 18,9D, Ml'. 'Charles Curtis collected in, the Lan,!!­

kawi islands a Dioscorea with male flowers, whi:ch was described in 1914 under the above name in the Journal of the As i:ltic Society of Bengal, N. S., 10, p. 22, and until recently it has remained kno"-n only by his specimens. But in the early part of 1024, hyo collectors, Mohamed N ur and KiaL, wcre sent fr0m the Bornnil! Ganlens, Singa,pore, to the mountain of Gun~ll1g l)ulai in the outh-western part of the State of J ohore, whence th0)' brought back liying tubers of the same plant; and these gave upon cult ivation in tho Gardens, both ma.le and female 'Plants. It is po -ible therefore to add to what ilS already known about it.

The tubers .are bLack, densely covered with short 1'001:..,;, ;;pari~lgly branched, t he branches mOTe or less cyhnclrical. They form at the surface of the soil and descend for 20 to 30 cm. It would seem by their appearance anc1 surface growth as if tl1CY lllay be altogether una.ppetisiiDg io the hungr i.est o·f "'ild pigs, the chipf destroyers of ec1ible forest tubers. The plate given here well illus­h'ates them.

'1'he stems toward~ the base anc1 a1 0 abo'-e cany sparingly small prickle. They attain the thickness of a crow-quill, and climb over auy convenient support to 2 or 3 metros.

Th~ UPPN' lea yes have been described. The lower .11'e similarly terlllLte and. carcely c1iffer . All leaflets arc relatively smaill, the middle at-taining little more tha.n 5 cm. by 1.75 em.

The male flowers have also been de5nibec1. 'l'hey were pro­c1uced in Singapore iln. the greatest abundance.

The female flowers were more sparingly de, elopec1. They offered nothing that is not seen in the closely alliec1 specii'5 01 Dioscorea, section Lasiophyton.

The capsules resemble those Ot D. pentc£7Jhylla: but are sligh.ly more acute, as the accompanying line lJlock shews.

]<'rom the langkawi islands to Gunong Pulai in a straight lille it i\3 about 450 miles, i.€. almost the whole length of British Malaya; and the species ma,y occur sporadically throughont the Peninsula. It has heen already found in one other piace, TIP.mely