346 SEIFRIz: THE TALIPOT PALM AT PERADENIYA, CEYLON 
Precipitation at Peradeniya (Cont'd) 
Jan.—Apr. Yearly Total 
1918* 13.60 94-97 
1919 19.41 86.64 
1920 19.41 103 .06 
1921 18.67 66.66 
1922* 15.78 85.41 
From the above table it is quite evident that drought cannot 
be the cause of the simultaneous flowering of seven of the talipot 
palms in 1918 and of eight of them in 1922. The precipitation 
during the dry season (Jan—Apr.) for each of the three years 
preceding both flowering periods is above average. The total 
annual rainfall for the year immediately preceding the 1922 
flowering is 21 inches below average while it is 15 inches above 
average for the corresponding year preceding the 1918 flowering. 
For the second year preceding each flowering the situation is 
reversed, and for the third year the annual rainfall is about aver- 
age in both cases. The only possible basis for regarding drought 
as the cause of gregarious flowering in these talipots is to as- 
sume that the relatively mild droughts during the dry season 
of the two years of flowering—Jan.—Apr., 1918 and 1922—are 
the cause. This is quite improbable; first, it is very unlikely 
that a drought occurring but a month or two before flowering 
is the stimulus which starts anthesis; second, if drought is the 
cause one would expect it to affect all palms of the same age; 
and third, the two droughts in question are not deserving of 
the name, because the precipitation is but slightly below 
average. 
The belief that the dry season of 1918 had been the unfavor- 
able factor which caused the palms, bamboos, and liane at 
Peradeniya to flower in that year, was supported by the extra- 
ordinary number of talipots which were to be seen in flower 
throughout the island. It seemed an almost unavoidable 
conclusion that some climatic factor of widespread occurrence 
* The years of flowering. 
The absence of any rain during February was the fact which gave 
rise to the belief that the season, Jan.—Apr., 1918, was one of drought. Those 
locally interested forgot that no rain fell during February in 1916 and 1911 
(and but 0.4 inches in 1912 and 1914) without causing any widespread flower- 
ing of talipots. 
