A beautiful tropical palm tree (Corypha umbraculifera), a native of Ceylon and the Malabar coast. It has a trunk sixty or seventy feet high, bearing a crown of gigantic fan-shaped leaves which are used as umbrellas and as fans in ceremonial processions, and, when cut into strips, as a substitute for writing paper.

tall palm of southern India and Sri Lanka with gigantic leaves used as umbrellas and fans or cut into strips for writing paper