Palmae. 19 
Of late a number of species of Thrinax have been introduced, 
as for example Thrinax parviflora Swartz and Thrinax radiata Lodd., 
but as the specimens are quite small as yet they will not be com- 
mented upon. Coccothrinax barbadensis (Lodd.) Becc. may also 
be found. 
Corypha umbraculifera L. 
The Talipot Palm. 
Plate V. 
The Talipot Palm is one of about five species belonging to the 
genus Corypha. It has a ringed trunk, generally remarkably 
straight and reaching a height of over eighty feet. Its leaves are of 
gigantic size if not the largest fan leaves of all palms. The petiole 
is seven feet long and armed with spines on the margins. The blade 
is about six feet long and sixteen feet broad with segments num- 
bering from ninety-five to a hundred, which are again bilobed. The 
flowers are white to cream colored and are borne in huge terminal 
panicles often twenty feet long; hence the palm can flower but once, 
after which it must die. The fruit is a roundish one-seeded drupe. 
This enormous palm is a native of Ceylon and the Malabar 
coast but is now cultivated in most tropical countries. The flower- 
ing time begins usually in the hot season, while the seeds ripen about 
nine or ten months afterwards. Each tree covers about two hun- 
dred superficial feet. 
The leaves of this palm are made into fans, mats and um- 
brellas; the segments were used by the Cinghalese to write on, and 
the sacred Pali texts of the Buddhist literature of Ceylon are all 
written on the leaf segments of this palm which are supposed to 
have withstood the ravages of ages. 
The seeds, which are hard like ivory, are employed in India in 
the manufacture of beads ; they are sometimes colored red and sold 
as coral. The pith of the trunk of this palm yields a kind of Sago, 
it is beaten to flour and baked into cakes. 
There are two specimens in Honolulu; the finest, here illus- 
trated, grows in front of Airs. Jaeger's residence on King Street; 
a small specimen which was kept in a pot but has now been planted 
out in the same grounds, is of the same age as the large specimen. 
Another, and probably older one, with a trunk of about ten feet 
was perhaps the first one introduced into Hawaii. It grows in 
Airs. AI. E. Foster's premises on Nuuanu Street. 
