surface. These scales melt by the heat of the fire, into white wax, which as it becomes cold is very hard and brittle. Its excessive brittleness prevents its being used alone, but if mixed with one part of bees-wax it makes excellent candles.

The leaves of the wax-palm expand when fully grown, and are useful in thatching houses. Thatch of this sort is very durable, and though exposed to the weather for more than twenty years, does not require to be renewed.

But perhaps the noblest of the palms is the talipot, that grows in the island of Ceylon. It is very tall and straight, like a ship's mast, and reaches the great height of two hundred feet. The leaf is made exactly like a fan, and can be opened and shut in just the same manner. When it is wide open it is large enough to cover twenty or thirty men, but it is so light, that even then it can be easily carried. It makes a capital umbrella, and the soldiers use it to keep off the rain. One of its good qualities is, that however · much rain may fall, the talipot leaf imbibes none of it, but remains as light and dry as ever. When set on end it forms an excellent tent, and many travellers have been glad of its shelter. It was once thought a great honour in Ceylon,

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very much admired for their beauty, and well known in all our toy shops.

The wax palm* grows upon the Andes of New Granada. It was discovered by Humbolt, and has its stem covered by a coating of wax, that exudes from the spaces between the marks made by the insertion of the leaves.

But there is another kind of palm.+ from which wax is obtained. It grows in the Brazils, and the banks of some of the rivers are covered with it. The fruit is black and shining, and about the size of a pigeon's egg: after being boiled in water for a sufficient time, it becomes soft, and eaten with milk is a wholesome food. The pith of the young stems affords a nutritive substance, very white and pleasant to the taste. In times of drought and famine the tree is invaluable, for the natives have only to cut it down before it attains its full height, and an abundant supply of food is provided with very little care or anxiety.

The vegetable wax is obtained from the young leaves, which are about two feet long, and doubled like a fan. They should be cut from the tree and allowed to dry in the shade, when a number of light-coloured scales will fall from their † Corypha Cerifera.

* Ceroxylon Andicola.

surface. These scales melt by the heat of the fire, into white wax, which as it becomes cold is very hard and brittle. Its excessive brittleness prevents its being used alone, but if mixed with one part of bees-wax it makes excellent candles.

The leaves of the wax-palm expand when fully grown, and are useful in thatching houses. Thatch of this sort is very durable, and though exposed to the weather for more than twenty years, does not require to be renewed.

But perhaps the noblest of the palms is the talipot, that grows in the island of Ceylon. It is very tall and straight, like a ship's mast, and reaches the great height of two hundred feet. The leaf is made exactly like a fan, and can be opened and shut in just the same manner. When it is wide open it is large enough to cover twenty or thirty men, but it is so light, that even. then it can be easily carried. It makes a capital umbrella, and the soldiers use it to keep off the rain. One of its good qualities is, that however much rain may fall, the talipot leaf imbibes none of it, but remains as light and dry as ever. When set on end it forms an excellent tent, and many travellers have been glad of its shelter. It was once thought a great honour in Ceylon,

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for a man to have a leaf of the talipot carried before him. According to his rank, was the number of leaves he was allowed to display, and they were borne shut up like a fan, by his

servants.

The natives cut the leaves into three-cornered pieces, and fasten them on their heads, with the pointed end foremost, to help them to push their way through the thickets.

The talipot bears no fruit until the last year of its life, and then the most lovely yellow blossoms come out on the top, and spread abroad in great branches. The bud is inclosed in a hard rind, which bursts with a loud noise, when the flower begins to expand. The smell of the flowers is so unpleasantly strong that the natives cut down the trees before the blossoms open, if by chance they grow too near their houses. The berries are not good to eat, but as if to make amends for this, the trunk when young is full of a mealy pith-like substance that can be made into cakes, and has very much the taste of bread. The leaves are used to write upon, and many of the books shown in Europe, and said to be of the Egyptian papyrus, are in reality made of the leaves of the talipot.