stated that anomalies of plant movements would disappear, if we succeeded in carrying out in detail in­ves­ti­ga­tions of effects of the different individual factors in operation. In illustration of this I shall, in the first Paper of the series, give an account of the mysterious movement of the ‘Praying’ Palm of Faridpur, and describe the in­ves­ti­ga­tions by which the problem found its solution.

II.—THE “PRAYING” PALM TREE

By

Sir J. Bose,

Assisted by

Narendra Nath Neogi, M.Sc.

Perhaps no phenomenon is so remarkable and shrouded with greater mystery as the performances of a particular Date Palm near Faridpur in Bengal. In the evening, while the temple bells ring calling upon people to prayer, this tree bows down as if to prostrate itself. It erects its head again in the morning, and this process is repeated every day of the year. This extraordinary phenomenon has been regarded as miraculous, and pilgrims have been attracted in large numbers. It is alleged that offerings made to the tree have been the means of effecting marvellous cures. It is not necessary to pronounce any opinion on the subject; these cures may be taken as effective as other faith-cures now prevalent in the West.

This particular Date Palm, Phœnix dactylifera, is a full-grown rigid tree, its trunk being 5 metres in length and 25 cm. in diameter. It must have been displaced by storm from the vertical and is now at an inclination of about 60° to the vertical. In consequence of the diurnal movement, the trunk throughout its entire length is erected in the morning, and depressed in the afternoon. The highest point of the trunk thus moves up and down through one metre; the ‘neck,’ above the trunk, is concave to the sky in the morning; in the afternoon the curvature disappears, or is even slightly reversed. The large leaves which point high up against the sky in the morning are thus swung round in the afternoon through a vertical distance of about five metres. To the popular imagination the tree appears like a living giant, more than twice the height of a human being, which leans forward in the evening from its towering height and bends its neck till the crown of leaves press against the ground in an apparent attitude of devotion (Fig. 1). Two vertical stakes, each one metre high, give a general idea of the size of the tree and movements of the different parts of the trunk.