54 ON THE VEGETATION OF MALAYSIA, 



three or four feet high, marked below with leaf-scars, but above 

 the base of the petiole is persistent. It is used as an umbrella or 

 parasol, and is called on that account the Chattah pat, chattah 

 being an umbrella in Assam. The demand for them is great ; 

 scarcely a single ploughman, cow-keeper, or coolee but carries a 

 sunshade made from this tree in Assam ; but in Malaysia it is not 

 so used. 



Licuala acutifida, or, in Malay the Kat-plass {Plass tisTcu), 

 appears to be the plant supplying the " Penang lawyers," It is 

 a small miniature palm, the trunk being only from three to five 

 feet high, though specimens may be obtained 15 or 20 feet in 

 height and about two inches in diameter at the base, marked with 

 incomplete rings to which fragments of the leaf stalks adhere. 

 Some think that the best of " Penang lawyers " are those which 

 are stoutest and most bludgeon-like ; but this is not the case, 

 because of the way in which they are prepared. Nearly the 

 whole of the outer layer is removed almost to the pith by scraping 

 and polishing. They thus become brittle and easily decayed. 

 The thinner sticks are much more valuable and are more rare. 

 Scraping and straightening over a fire is the only preparation 

 these sticks appear to be subjected to. The species is not 

 common and has a restricted habitat, though probably not entirely 

 confined to the neighbourhood of Penang or the province of 

 Wellesley. 



On the borders of paddy-swamps throughout the Peninsula 

 there is a very elegant palm 30 or 40 feet high, annulate, and 

 each ring beset with spines with a dense and graceful foliage. 

 This is the Nibong Palm of the Malays, or Areca tigillaria, not 

 to be confounded with Nibong Paday, or A. horrida, common on 

 the cliffs of the sea-shore a little to the north of Kundur, near 

 Malacca. The first species mentioned is much in request for 

 door-posts. Nibong tubal is the name of a somewhat large 

 village (tubal, thick) in the province Wellesley. 



Orania macrocladus, tbe Daun daun or Ebul of the Malays, is a 

 handsome palm about 40 feet in height resembling a Cocoa-nut 



