NOTES ON THE PALM “ CARYOTA URENS.”’ 33 
“Descriptive Notes on Papuan Plants,’ by Baron Von 
Mueller, K.C:M:G,, Me & PH.D F.R.S) &e. (No.7. 
Melbourne, 1886. From the Author. 
“The Australian Irrigationist.” No. 19. Melbourne, 
1886. From the Editor. 
Photographs of drawings of South American Palms, from 
Mr. L. A. Bernays. 
The following paper was read :— 
NOTES ON, THE, PALM: “CARY OTA 
URENS, Willd ,” 
BY 
LA BERNA YS, «RS. F Ls, 
(Read on 5th March, 1886.) 
ON a former occasion I brought to the notice of the Society 
the Palm “ Raphia ruffia,” which had proved itself adapted 
to the climate of Queensland. I now invite your attention 
to another member of the great palm family, “Caryota 
_urens’”’ (the Toddy Palm), many handsome specimens of 
which are to be seen at Bowen Park, and elsewhere in the 
gardens on our coast line. The tree is a native of Ceylon 
and of the various mountainous parts of India. It grows 
with a straight column, often sixty feet high and thick in 
proportion, and is one of the most elegant of the beautiful 
and widespread family to which it belongs. When in a 
soil and situation congenial to its nature it grows as fast as 
the cocoanut tree. The fruit—a berry—is roundish, of 
the size of a small nutmeg, covered with a thin yellow bark, 
very acrid to the taste, from which property it derives its 
specific name “urens.”’ The seed or nut is generally soli- 
tary, and is hard enough for buttons and beads, to which 
use it is applied. The outer wood is nearly as hard as 
flint, and the stem, freed from the inner pith, makes an 
D 
