SEIFRIZ: THE TALIPOT PALM AT PERADENIYA, CEYLON 347 
had brought on so extensive a flowering of these palms. In 
1922, on the other hand, there was no report of a general flower- 
ing of Coryphas in Ceylon. In fact, between Colombo and 
Kandy no talipots were to be seen in flower 
If the anthesis of the talipots in the Peradeniya Gardens in 
1922 was the result of an environmental factor this factor could 
not have been widely distributed because of the very restricted 
region of gregarious flowering among the palms on the island in 
that year. 
Since our data do not permit the deduction that an environ- 
mental factor is the direct cause of gregarious flowering in 
Corypha umbraculifera, the only other conclusion is, that 
simultaneity in flowering is the expression of a heritable tendency, 
yet this hypothesis is not unequivocally supported by the be- 
havior of the palms. If the age at which the palms mature 
sexually i is fixed, one would rather expect all twenty of the palms 
in the avenue at Peradeniya to have flowered simultaneously 
since all were of the same age. The fact that they did not do 
this suggests, what is quite probable, that the parentage of the 
palms is different, and that the age of sexual maturity is not 
precisely the same in the offspring of different parents.* 
The acceptance of the hereditary hypothesis of the cause of 
gregarious flowering in plants does not altogether preclude the 
*It has been suggested that it is not primarily the age of Corypha _ 
determines the time of flowering, but the height of the palm. At a certai 
height, which Corypha normally attains in about 34 years, the plant is ee 
to cope with the mechanical difficulties of maintaining a water column of 
that height in its vascular system. The suggestion is nicely supported by. 
the fact that 5 shorter palms (3 clearly visible in plate 8) did not flower, 
either at the first period in 1918 (Fig. 1) or at the second period in 1922 (plates 
8 and g), even though of the same age as all the palms making up the avenue. 
(The talipot palm varies considerably in rate of growth. In the young state 
the peasants, including Garden coolies, habitually cut the leaves for use as 
umbrellas or for other purposes, so that the palm may take anything up to 
20 years or more before forming a stem.) As interesting and suggestive as 
the above speculation is, it cannot be unqualifiedly accepted in view of the - 
fact that it seems hardly likely that the rate of growth of 7 of the palms 
should be so uniform as to cause them to attain the maximum height simul- 
taneously in 1918, while 8 of the remaining palms were equally uniform in 
rate of growth, being all precisely two years behind the first 7. The date of 
planting, it will be recalled, was precisely the same (1888) for all of the 20 
palms making up the avenue. 
