Order 122. Palmece. 359 



Pretty common in Southern jungles (J>.). S. Konkan (#.). Deccan 

 peninsula and Ceylon (-ET.). 



6. BORASSUS. 



B. fldbellifer. The Palmyra or brab tree. Leaves very 

 large, petioles serrated and spinous on the edges, fruit large, 

 round. Tad. 



Everywhere in N. Konkan ; elsewhere sparingly. H. gives it only 

 as cultivated. This is the largest and best known of the family in 

 W. India. The fruit with its white pulp is eatable, and the sap is the 

 commonest spirituous liquor of the Presidency. 



G.'s B. dichotomus, Okemandal, which he says covers the whole 

 island of Diu, and is found in various parts of Guzerat, is included by 

 H. in this. 



7. Cocos. 



C. nucifera. The cocoanut tree. Unarmed, leaves pinna- 

 ted, 10 to 15 feet long, leaflets sword-shaped. Ndral mhdd. 



Cultivated, especially near the sea (H.). The cocoanut groves in 

 the S. Konkan are planted by the Brahmins for the fruit, and by 

 Bandhdris for the liquor, but the other products of the tree are, as is 

 well known, valuable. 



" And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear 

 Than fruits of palm tree, pleasantest to thirst 

 And hunger both." Paradise Lost. 



Captain Cook mentions that natives of the South Sea Islands peel 

 off the outer rind of the cocoanut with their teeth. 



Corypha, tall stout unarmed palms, dying after once flowering ; 

 leaves very large, roundish or fan-shaped, much-divided, calyx cup- 

 shaped, 3-divided, stamens 6, ovary 3-lobed, fruit of 1 to 3 round 

 fleshy drupes. 



* C. umbraculifera, leaves palmately pinnatifid, 6 feet long, panicles 

 pyramidal. 



This is the talipot palm of Ceylon, found in gardens in India. The 

 leaves are used for writing on with an iron style. 



The allusions to palm trees generally in prose as well as poetry are 

 numberless. Few similes are more striking, or more interesting 

 from the circumstances under which the passage was composed,* 

 than Heber's, with reference to the building of the Temple, in 

 " Palestine : " 



"No hammer fell, no ponderous axes rung, 

 Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung. 

 Majestic silence ! " 



* See Lockhart's " Life of Scott," ii. 122, ed. 1839. 



