70 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



through the boughs and thickets. When the sun is vehement hot^ 

 they use them to shade themselves from the heat ; soldiers all carry 

 them, for besides the benefit of keeping them drj^ in case it rain 

 upon the march these leaves make their tents to lie under in the 

 night. A marvellous mercy, Avhich Almight}^ God hath bestowed 

 upon this poor and naked people in this rainy country." 



Illusteations. — Plate XVIII shows a gigantic specimen of the 

 Talipot Palm in flower. In its youth it devotes itself to producing 

 only huge fan-shaped leaves ; later on a trunk begins to form 

 which grows straight as a mast. The grand white stem is encircled 

 with closely set ring-marks, showing where it has born and shed 

 its leaves from year to year. When the Talipot attains full 

 maturity, it grows somewhat smaller leaves, and develops a 

 gigantic bud some four feet in height. In due course this bursts 

 with a report, and unfolds a lovely white blossom which expands 

 into a majestic pyramid of cream-coloured flowers, which rise to a 

 height of twenty feet above the leafy crown. At the same time 

 the leaves begin to wither and cover in this state for some time 

 the upper part of the stem, as may be seen in our picture. 



Plate XIX shows the same palm a short time after. The 

 magnificent bloom is succeeded by the fruit which consists of 

 inniimerable nuts or seeds. It now begins to droop and Avithin a 

 year it falls dead. (Plate XX.) 



CORYPHA TALLIERA, Roxb. Cor. PI. Ill, 251, t. 255, 256 ; Fl. Ind. 

 Ill, 174 ; Kunth Enum. Ill, 236 ; Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. Ill, 231 ; Griff, 

 in Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist. V, 317 ; Palms Brit. Ind, 114, t. 220, E. F.; WaJl. 

 Cat. 8616; Hook. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI, 428; Brandis, Ind. Trees, 658.— TalUera 

 bengalensis, Sprang. Syst. Veg. II, 18. — T. taleti, Mart, in Roem. — Schult. 

 Syst. VII, 1306. 



Names. — Tara, Tallier, Tareet (Beng.). 



Description. — Trunk perfectly straight, about 30 feet high, 

 equally thick throughout, obsoletely annulate, dark brown, rather 

 rough. Leaves palmate-pinnatifid, subrotund, complicate above 

 the middle, sub-glaucous, 6 feet long, 15 feet broad, 90-100-fid, 

 lobes deeper and broader than in tmibraculifera, the central 3-3^ 

 feet, basal ones overlapping ; petiole 5-10 feet long, not spirally 



