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._] But the most interesting use to which they are applied is as substitutes for paper, both for books and for ordinary purposes.

In the preparation of _olas_, which is the term applied to them when so employed, the leaves are taken whilst still tender, and, after separating the central ribs, they are cut into strips and boiled in spring water.