THE AXGIOSPERMAE : STEMS 



835 



100 years, does in fact wait for upwards of half a centurv before sending up 

 its 50-ft. inflorescence, and thereafter dies. Perhaps the most striking case 

 is that of the TaHpot Palm, Corypha timhracuUfera, which grows to a height 

 of over 60 ft. in about thirty years, without flowering (Fig. 831). The 

 terminal inflorescence, when it is eventually produced, mav be upwards of 



^'^Mi 



«■ "^vv ,"'1 , ijli -d-' ■ ;. <' 



Fig. 831. — Corypha umbracuUfera (Talipot Palm). 



Plant in flower. 



(From Kerner, " The Natural History of Plants," Blackie &r Sons Ltd.) 



40 ft. high and nearly as much across, being in fact the largest known. As 

 soon as the seeds are ripe the whole tree dies forthwith. In all these cases 

 it seems to be the exhaustion of the food reserves demanded by the large 

 masses of flowers which kills the plant. 



Cases have also been recorded of trees, even such great trees as the 

 Spanish Mahoganv, producing monocarpic seedlings which flowered and died 

 without growing beyond the seedling stage. Many other similar departures 

 from the normal show that life habit is far from being fixed and unchangeable. 



