o 



28 Pabne<^. [Corypha. 



In the Peninsula of India P. farim'/cra attains a height of stem of 



4 ft., and contains a floury substance used as food in times of scarcity. 



The split petioles are used for basket work, and the leaflets for making 

 sleeping mats. — J. D. H. 



7. CORVPHA, L. 



Unarmed palms, dying after once fig. and frg. ; 1. terminal, 

 very large, palmately or flabellately, multifid, segm. induplicate 

 in vernation ; spadix a very large, terminal, erect, decompound 

 panicle; spathes many, tubular; fl. small, bisexual; calyx 

 cupular, 3-fid; pet. 3, connate below in a stipes, ovate, acute, 

 imbricate or subvalvate ; stam. 6, fil. subulate, anth. dorsi- 

 fixed ; ov. deeply 3-lobed, 3-celled, style short, subulate, 

 stigma minute, 3-fid, ovules erect, anatropous; fr. of 1-3 fleshy 

 globose drupes, styles basilar; seeds erect, globose, embryo at 

 the summit of the equable horny endosperm. — Sp. 8 ; 3 in 

 FL B. Ind. 



C. umbracullfera, Z. Sp. PL 1187 (1753). Tala, 5. 



Herm. Mus. 54. Burm. Thes. 181. FI. Zeyl. n. 394. Moon, Cat. 26. 

 Thw. Enum. 329. C. P. 2336. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 428. Hort. I\lal. iii. tt. 1-7. Gaertn. Fruct. t. 7 

 (fruit). 



Trunk erect, straight, cylindric, 30-80 ft. high by 2-3 ft. 

 diam., annulate; 1. 8-16 ft. diam., plicate, cleft to about the 

 middle into 80-100 linear-lanceolate acute or bifid lobes ; 

 petiole 5-10 ft., very stout, margins armed with short com- 

 pressed dark-col'd. spines; spadix pyramidal, 10-20 ft. high, 

 decompound, shortly stoutly peduncled, ped. clothed with 

 tubular spathes which the primary branches pierce, branchlets 

 forming pendulous spikes; cal. broadly 3-toothed ; pet. oblong, 

 about -jV in. long ; drupe shortly stipitate, globose, i \ in. 

 diam., 2-celled with two small arrested carpels at its base, 

 greyish olive-col'd., roughish. 



Moist region below 2000 ft.; rather common. Fl. Nov.-Jan. 



Also in Malabar. 



This must be a native palm, but I have never seen it in original 

 jungle. Of the vast number of seedlings which come up near the parent 

 tree, very few arrive at maturity, the young leaves being continually cut, 

 Beddome remarks that he has never seen it wild in S. India. 



The largest and most imposing of Eastern Palms, flowering when 

 about 40 years old. The young fruit, pounded, is used for stupefying fish. 

 The leaves form mats, fans, and umbrellas, and are also used for writing 

 upon. A bread is made of the pounded soft interior of the trunk. The 

 seeds have the hardness of ivory, and are known as Bayarbatu nuts ; they 

 are used as beads in Ceylon, and in the manufacture of buttons in 

 Europe. 



