262 MONTHLY SUMMARY. 



owe to their gigantic neighbour, the International Exhibition, is 

 B, full gro^u Talipot Palm-Tree, in flower, horn Ceylon — not 

 living, of course, but the stem, leaves, and flowers, cut 

 down and sent home in pieces, to be put together again on 

 Arrival. Mr. Rawdoti Power, the Commissioner for Cevlon to 

 the International Exhibition, has offered this most interesting 

 gift to the Societ3^ 



Tiie Talipot, Talipat, talpat, 6r CalappaPalm {Qorypha 

 livibracidifera) is well kno^Yn as the most wonderful and 

 aejestic of the Palm tribe. Its stem sometimes reaches 100 

 feet in height, standing like a slender pillar, from the top of 

 which expand on every side a crown of the largest leaves 

 which any plant is known to produce, and which in their 

 native country form a most delightful shade. They are 

 fan-shaped, and each of them, when laid on the ground, 

 will form a semicircle of 16 feet in diameter, and cover an area 

 of nearly 200 superficial feet. From this crown spriugs an 

 immense and lofty spike of flowers, which rises in a delicate 

 and airy pyramidal form. The bursting of this flower from 

 its spathe, or sheath, is accompanied by a loud explosion. The 

 tree, however, is rarely to be seen in flower, for it flowers but 

 once in its whole life, and, having flowered, dies. Tiie florets 

 take upwards of fourteen months to turn into ripe fruit, and the 

 spike of flowers proceeds so leisurely in perfecting its fruit that 

 it occupies thirty years in the process, and when the last 

 floret has run its course, the tree itself dies. It flowers at any 

 time of the year, but most commonly in August. 



It is perhaps as much the rarity of its being seen in flower as its 

 otherwise intrinsic beauty which has induced the ofl&cials in 

 Ceylon to send it home on this occasion. Even many who 

 hare spent their lives in Ceylon have never seen this plant in 

 flower. It grows in rocky and mountainous places in Malabar 

 and Ceylon, and is put to many uses by the natives; the most 

 useful part heing the kaves, from which almost everything is 

 made that can be conceived capable of behig made from such 

 materials, from a roof to a piece of paper. The tree now on its 

 way is about 60 feet in height, and it is proposed by the 

 Council to set it up in the Consen-atory, the roof of which being 

 76 feet from the ground mil permit of this being easily enough 

 done. In this instance there will be no great difficulty in putting 

 it up, the gallery in the Conservatory, as well as its iron ribs, 

 furnishing plenty of points for leverage and support. 



