[Footnote 2: The following are only a few of the countless uses of this invaluable tree. The _leaves_, for roofing, for mats, for baskets, torches or chules, fuel, brooms, fodder for cattle, manure. The _stem of the leaf_, for fences, for pingoes (or yokes) for carrying burthens on the shoulders, for fishing-rods, and innumerable domestic utensils. The _cabbage_ or cluster of unexpended leaves, for pickles and preserves. The _sap_ for _toddy_, for distilling arrack, and for making vinegar, and sugar. The _unformed nut_, for medicine and sweetmeats. The _young nut_ and its milk, for drinking, for dessert; the _green husk_ for preserves. The _nut_, for eating, for curry, for milk, for cooking. The _oil_, for rheumatism, for anointing the hair, for soap, for candles, for light; and the _poonak_, or refuse of the nut after expressing the oil, for cattle and poultry. The _shell of the nut_, for drinking cups, charcoal, tooth-powder, spoons, medicine, hookahs, beads, bottles, and knife-handles. The _coir_, or fibre which envelopes the shell within the outer husk, for mattresses, cushions, ropes, cables, cordage, canvass, fishing-nets, fuel, brushes, oakum, and floor mats. The _trunk_, for rafters, laths, railing, boats, troughs, furniture, firewood; and when very young, the first shoots, or cabbage, as a vegetable for the table. The entire list, with a Singhalese enthusiast, is an interminable narration of the virtues of his favourite tree.] The most majestic and wonderful of the palm tribe is the _talpat_ or _talipat_[1], the stem of which sometimes attains the height of 100 feet, and each of its enormous fan-like leaves, when laid upon the ground, will form a semicircle of 16 feet in diameter, and cover an area of nearly 200 superficial feet. The tree flowers but once, and dies; and the natives firmly believe that the bursting of the shadix is accompanied by a loud explosion. The leaves alone are converted by the Singhalese to purposes of utility. Of them they form coverings for their houses, and portable tents of a rude but effective character; and on occasions of ceremony, each chief and headman on walking abroad is attended by a follower, who holds above his head an elaborately-ornamented fan, formed from a single leaf of the talpat. [Footnote 1: Corypha umbraculifera, _Linn._]