.82 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



about 4 quarts per day, increasing by degrees to 6, 8 and 12 quarts. 

 In strong,healthy individuals even 18 or 20 quarts maybe obtained at 

 the end of the course. Sometimes, in an unusually prolific palm, 

 three or even four spathes, may be seen tapped at the same time, 

 while others in spite of the most careful training, yield no toddy 

 whatever. An average-sized spathe is tapped in about four months, 

 .and all the spathes of one palm are exhausted in about two years. 

 Roxburgh mentions that the best trees give as much as 100 pints 

 in 24 hours. 



The " cabbage " or terminal bud is edible, like that of most 

 palms. The woolly substance or scurf scraped from the leaf-stalks 

 is used in Burma for caulking boats ; it also serves as tinder. 



The timber, being strong and durable, is much used for agricul- 

 tural purposes, water-conduits, beams and rafters. 



Sometimes it is cut into walking sticks. 



The seeds are used as beads by the Mahomedans. 



According to Commelinus^ the pulp of the fruit is bitter and 

 irritates the tongue. It is probably this circumstance which 

 suggested the specific name of the palm ' urens,' i.e., ' burning.' 

 Watt remarks : " The fruit is certainly very pungent and insipid, 

 but I cannot recollect having observed the tingling property just 

 mentioned, though I have eaten it." 



I never tasted the fruit, but I remember that, some years back, 

 I asked my students in Botany to dissect the fruit of Garyota. 

 After a few minutes they gave it up, showing me their hands 

 which looked, indeed, as if they had been handling nettles. The 

 victims of science felt the irritation for about two hours. Unfortii- 

 nately I do not remember whether the fruits were fully ripe at the 

 time or not. All I know is that they were still on the tree when 

 I gathered them. 



Wald" gives quite a different explanation of the name ' urens,' 

 but he does not say on what authority. He says that the bark of 

 the tree when wetted, causes a distinct irritating sensation. 



Cultivation in India. — This palm thrives in gardens with 

 ordinary border treatment. It reaches its full size in about 15 

 years, and about 7 years more are occupied in producing its flowers 

 before it becomes unfit for the garden. The first flowering panicle 

 is of immense size and pendulous from the axil of one of the 

 upper leaves. The second is from a lower axil and somewhat 

 smaller, and so on downwards until the tree is exhausted (Wood- 

 row). 



Cultivation in Europe. — This species is frequently employed 

 in subtropical gardening from June till September. 



1 Rheede, Hort. Mai. I, 16, n. 



- Wald, K. Lebensbseume. Regensburg, 1906, p. 74. 



