TALIPAT, TALAPOT, TALPAT (Corypha umbraulifera, Linn.), one of the noblest and most gigantic of the majestic family of palms. It is found in the Southern Dekkan and in the Malay peninsula, and attains to the utmost perfection in the forests of Ceylon. Here its cylindrical stem, spirally marked by the traces of fallen leaf-stalks, reaches the height of 100 feet; rising generally without flexure, and bearing a crown of fan-shaped leaves, with numerous bilobed divisions. Of these the petiole is from 6 to 7 feet in length, and the blade, when expanded, forms an oval 8 feet long by 16 broad, calculated to cover an area of 200 superficial feet.
The talipat having a terminal panicle, flowers but once; and dies after ripening and dispersing its seeds. The spathe appears at the extremity of the stem; and its burst-
Talleyrand, ing on the expansion of the flowers is said to be accompanied by the phenomenon of an audible explosion. The flowers, of a greenish white, tinged with red, and emitting a sickly odour, are produced on a blanchet spadix, which during efflorescence adds from 10 to 15 feet to the height of the palm. These are succeeded by a multitude of roundish one-sided berries, on the dispersion of which decay begins, and proceeds with such rapidity that the tree is extinct within a very few months from the first appearance of the flower. The talipot is said to live to the age of 100, but its leaves are largest and most luxuriant about its thirtieth year.
No part of the talipot contributes materially to the economic uses of man, with the exception of its unbragious leaves. These, when full grown, are used for covering houses and forming ceilings, screens, and partitions in rooms. The natives of Ceylon improvise from them parasols and umbrellas on their journeys, and tents when resting for the night; and one of the attributes of rank among the mountaineers of Kandy is the privilege of having borne by their attendants gigantic fans made of the talipot leaf, highly decorated with tinsel, and inlaid with plates of transparent tale.
But the most interesting purpose to which the young leaf of the talipot is converted is in substitution for parchment and paper, as a material for records, letters, and books. The custom of so applying it has prevailed from the earliest ages; and Albyronni relates, that, prior to the tenth century, the Arabian mariners resorting to India found the people writing on strips of the "târy" or "tala" palm, which, after cutting them into pieces a cubit long and three finger-breadths wide, they formed into books by passing a string through a hole pierced in the centre of each. This passage describes accurately the olas, as they are made at the present day, from the tender leaves both of the talipot and palmyra (Borassus flabelliformis). The practice is to free the leaf from the midrib and tendons, and to macerate it in heated spring-water, and occasionally in milk, when it is slowly dried in the shade, and afterwards more thoroughly in the sun. In this state the strips are called in Ceylon karakola, and are used for all ordinary purposes. But a fine description, called pukakola, is prepared in the temples by the Buddhist priests and novices, who, after damping the karakola, draw it smartly backwards and forwards across the edge of a smoothed plank of Araca-wood, till its surface becomes even and partially polished. As the moisture dries during the operation, the ola is dampened afresh till the required effect is produced.
The faculty for receiving writing possessed by the talipot leaf depends on the thin layer of spongy matter enclosed between the two coriaceous surfaces of the upper and under side; these latter are readily incised with the point of an iron stile, leaving sharp furrows, that are afterwards rendered legible by rubbing in a mixture of charcoal tempered with oil. The effect of the latter is said to protect the olas from destruction by the white ants (termites), and other insects. If intended to form a book, two holes are made in the leaves, one near each end, to receive cords, by which they are secured between two wooden covers, generally decorated with carving or lacquered devices. (Berthold Smeeman's History of Palms and their Allies; Sir J. Emerson Tennent's Ceylon; Ferguson's Palmyra Palm; Reinaud's Mémoire sur l'Inde, p. 305-307.) (J. E. T.)