CORYPHA 



UMBRACU LIFER A 



Talipot 



D.E.P., 

 ii., 572-3. 

 Emery. 



THE INDIAN HAZEL 



Artificial 

 Production. 



Substitutes. 



Indian 

 Sources. 



Assam. 

 Panjab. 

 Burma. 



D.E.P., 

 ii.,'575. 

 Hazel. 



Food. 

 Timber. 



D.E.P., 



ii., 575-7. 

 Talipot. 



Flowering. 



Fans. 

 Baskets. 



CORUNDUM, Ball, Man. Econ. Geol Ind. (ed. Holland), 1898, pt. i. ; 

 Middlemiss in Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., 1896, xxix., pt. ii., 39-51 ; Holland, 

 Rev. Min. Prod, in Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., 1905, xxxii., pt. i., 105. Emery- 

 stone, Jcurund, samada, etc. 



It is perhaps unnecessary to do more than refer the reader to the accounts of 

 Indian corundum contained in the publications cited above. The corundum 

 gems, viz. rubies, sapphires, garnets, spinels, etc., will be found under the heading 

 of Gems (pp. 558-60). 



Holland (I.e. 105) observes that the use of abrasives in manufacturing com- 

 munities seems to be on the increase, and that whereas emery formerly served 

 most requirements, purer forms of corundum have now been discovered in 

 quantity and natural corundum has to meet many artificial competitors. In 

 the United States carborundum is manufactured by electric power to the amount 

 of about 1,700 tons a year ; bauxite is used to make artificial corundum at Ni- 

 agara, and crushed steel is being employed to an increasing extent as a substitute. 

 In India natural corundum is scattered as isolated crystals through the rock, 

 and although for many generations Indian armourers and lapidaries have been 

 supplied from a few comparatively rich deposits, it is doubtful whether these 

 workings will even hold their own against the importation of cheap abrasives, 

 much less prove a paying source for an export traffic. The chief supplies of 

 Indian corundum would appear to be in Mysore and Madras, the total production 

 from the former State having varied from 2,937 cwt., valued at 698, in 1898, to 

 574 cwt., valued at 108, in 1902. Corundum occurs in Assam, Hyderabad, 

 Panjab, etc. The deposits of Burma are of course famous for rubies, and 

 since 1882 large sapphires have been obtained in Kashmir. The total production 

 and trade for all India is quite indefinite, since much of the corundum sold in 

 Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, etc., is casually collected and sold by villagers. Since 

 1898 considerable interest has been roused by the Canadian separation of corun- 

 dum from nepheline-syenite, such as occurs in the Coimbatore district. The product 

 thus obtained has apparently been found profitable for export. 



CORYLUS COLURNA, Linn. ; Fl Br. Ind., v., 625 ; Lawrence, 

 Valley of Kashmir, 74, 79, 81 ; Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 684 ; Rec. Bot. 

 Surv. Ind., i., 39, 187, 210; Collett, Fl. Sim., 476. The Indian and 

 Constantinople Hazel, urni, winri, thankoli, jangi, shurli, ban pdlu, geh ; 

 CUPULIFER^;. 



This, the Indian representative of the European hazel (c. Areiiana), is a 

 moderate-sized tree of the North- West Himalaya between 5,500 and 10,000 feet. 

 It flowers in March- April and ripens its fruits in the rains. The nuts are 

 smaller than the European hazel but are very largely eaten and traded in all 

 over India, chiefly by the Kabulis. The Afghanistan and Kashmir nuts are 

 superior to those of the British Himalaya. The wood is used for making spinning- 

 wheels, and invariably for the big spoons with which tea is ladled out ; it is 

 moderately hard, does not warp, and shows a grain resembling Bird's-eye Maple. 



CORYPHA UMBRACULJFERA, Linn. ; Fl. Br. Ind., vi., 

 428 ; Forster, PI Esc., 1786, 49 ; Dodge, Useful Fibre Plants of the World, 

 135, pi. ix. ; Semler, Trop. Agrik., 1897, i., 724 ; Talbot, List Trees, etc., 

 1902, 343 ; Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 732-3 ; Pram, Beng. Plants, ii., 

 1090-1 ; Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind., iii., 293 ; PALMED. The true Talipot 

 Palm or tola, tali, bajar-battuler (or battu), tara, codda-pani, talip-panai, 

 shritalam, bine, pebin, pelin, etc. A tall fan-leaved palm of Ceylon and 

 the Malabar coast, cultivated in Bengal and Burma. 



Common in the moist regions of the Madras Presidency and not uncommon 

 in Bengal, where Roxburgh regarded it as " native." It is often planted in 

 gardens near the sea-coast and flowers once, usually when about forty years old, 

 after which it ripens its seed and dies. Many of its uses and vernacular names 

 are identical with those of Boi-nssutt fluiieuifur, the Palymyra or Talipot of 

 Bengal (see p. 170), a circumstance which has given rise to much confusion. 



The leaves are very large, often ten feet in diameter j are made into 



428 



