PALMYRA TREE, Borassus flabelliformis.
This tree is very abundant, especially in all the sandy tracts near the sea. It is to be seen in almost all parts of India, and occasionally as far is lat. 30° N. It is, next to Caryota urens, the largest palm in the Peninsula, and it seems to thrive equally well in all soils and situations. The palmyra forests of Tinnevelly form a distinc tive feature in the scenery of the province ; it extends along the Malabar coast, and is almost the only tree seen in the flatter alluvium near the sea at Gujerat. It is common on the islands of the Indian Archipelago. After the cocoanut tree, this is the most useful of the palms. The fruit and the fusiform roots of the young trees are used in the Northern Circara as articles of food by the poorer classes. The leaves are used for thatching and coarse fibre. Toddy is extracted from the sap of the tree, and is extensively used in the manu facture of sugar in Vizianagmm and Rajamundry. Very neat baskets of palmyra leaf are manu factured at Tiunevelly. The seeds when young are eaten by the natives, being jelly-like and palatable. The Poonatoo of the Singhalese is the pulp of the fruit dried in the sun, then smoked in their houses, and eaten as cakes, for soup, or in !curry; its young root is as edible and nutritious as a carrot ; from its leaves are manufactured matt fans, beautiful basket-work of every de 1 scription, sandals, hats, umbrellas, sieves, thatch, water buckets, and the most lasting substitute for paper used by the natives, and are largely used for writing upon with an iron style. The sap is a /pleasant nutritious drink, and from it is produced excellent sugar, and superior sugar-candy. The fruit when roasted is* wholesome food, and in hot weather the pulp is a moat grateful refreshment. The timber of the trunk supplies the natives with a durable wood for building purposes, the refuse of the leaves is their ordinary airing, and the huge root of the old tree, when covered with a sheep skin, forms an excellent drum. Tho dried pared leaves are also employed for thatchi:77; houses, for making small baskets, mats, etc., and some also are formed into large fans. The fibres of the leaf-stalk are employed on the Madras side for making twine and small rope. They are about two feet in length, strong, wiry, and not unlike those of the esparto of Spain. The wood, near the circumference of old trees, is very hard, black, heavy, and durable. Its wood is used chiefly for rafters, joists, and recpers; when of good age, the timber is very valuable for this purpose; the timber is split into four for rafters into eight for reepers,—these are dressed with an Sdze.
Those of the Jaffna palmyras are famous, and were largely imported into the Peninsula in former times. From the structure of the fibres, it splits easily in the direction of its length, but supports a greater cross strain than any other wood ; iron nails, however, rust rapidly in it. As a fancy wood it is known in Europe as porcupine wood and as nutmeg wood. Near the base of the leaves is a fine down, which is used for straining liquids through, and also for stopping bleeding from wounds. The tree, during the first part of the season, yields a pretty large quantity of toddy or palm wine. This is either drunk fresh drawn from the tree, or boiled down into a coarse kind of syrup called jagari, or it is fermented for distillation. One-fourth of the population of the northern provinces of Ceylon are supported by the produce of this tree. In Tinnevelly thousands subsist on the products of this palm ; a consider able portion of the revenue of the province is derived from the tax upon it, and no small portion of the time of the magistrates is wasted upon the quarrels and disputes of which it is a most fruitful source. There are about five millions of palmyraa bearing tax, and the sum thus realized by Government grants is one lakti and a half of rupees, or about one rupee per thirty trees. Pro prietorship in palmyras consists of four classes, viz. I. The ryot who is owner of the trees and the lands upon which they grow ; 2. The palymra climber who holds a puttah for trees growing on the land of another ; 3. The climber who holds a puttah for trees growing on land belonging to Government, lying waste, but capable of being cultivated ; and 4. Climbers who hold puttahs for trees on land belonging to Government, but which cannot be cultivated, such as road-skies, etc. From this diverse proprietorship, from the manner in which the tax is assessed, oftentimes. being in excess of the land tax, and from the practice of inspecting and assessing the tax once in three years, the proprietors are subjected to consider able inconvenience, and the collector and his assistants to very much labour. Palmyra leaf fibres are obtained by bruiting and beating the leaf-stalks, which are then dried in the sun for a couple of days, when they are taken up, the fibres separated by the fingers, and gentlys with a knife to remove any pulp adhering —Ten naxes Ceylom, 3f.E.J.R.: Royle's Fib. I'lants, p. 99 ; Mason.