172 AROUND THE WORLD VIA INDIA. 



fruit will quench his thirst and the meat of the ripe 

 nut supplies him with food. The rain tree (Inga sausa) 

 is a large tree with thick, short stems and widely- 

 spreading hranches. Around the lake of Kandy these 

 trees are of enormous size. It has a pinnatifid leaf like 

 the acacia. In the evening these leaflets fold them- 

 selves into a small cup, in which the falling dew is col- 

 lected and retained until sunrise, when it unfolds, and 

 in doing so the thousands of drops of water give rise 

 to a shower on a small scale, hence the name "rain 

 tree." 



Ceylon is the home of a great variety of palms. Of 

 these the talipot palm is one of the most remarkable. 

 For the first ten years it grows only from scaped leaves. 

 Next the stem grows as straight as a mast to a height 

 of 100 feet. Each annual growth is indicated by a 

 ring. The fan-shaped leaves are of enormous size, 

 sometimes 15 feet in radius. They are so large that 

 three leaves make an ample and waterproof tent. The 

 leaf, cut into pieces of convenient size, has been used 

 for centuries as a substitute for writing paper. 



In the octagonal tower of the Temple of the Tooth 

 at Kandy thousands of manuscript volumes record the 

 early history of India on strips of the leaves of this 

 palm. When the tree reaches maturity it develops a 

 gigantic bud at the end of a pole-like prolongation pro- 

 jecting 10 to 15 feet above the crown of fronds. This 

 bud in due time bursts with a report and a lovely white 

 blossom unfolds itself and spreads with a pyramid of 

 cream-colored flowers. After this final act of propa- 

 gating its species the tree soon sickens and dies. It 

 was my fortune to see one of these trees a very short 

 time after bursting of its pod and expansion of the lib- 

 erated flowers. The undergrowth in forest and jungle 

 is represented by a variety of shrubs, the principal one 

 being the nulu. 



The density of the forest is increased by twining 

 plants, many of which, especially the Thunbergia. with 



