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TALENT 234 TALLAHASSEE native of Ceylon and the Malabar coast, and cultivated in Bengal and Burma. It has a tall, cylindrical stem, with a soft rind and soft pink internal pith, both formed of vascular bundles. The leaves are in a cluster at the top of the stem, and are fan-shaped. A tree at Perade- niya, in Ceylon, was described in the "Indian Agriculturist" for November, 1873, as having a stem 84 feet high, ter- minated by a flower panicle of 20 feet, making 104 feet in all, the girth of the stem 3 feet from the ground round the persistent bases of the leaves was 13 feet 4 inches; at 21 feet from the ground 8 feet 3 inches; the leaves were about 10 feet in diameter, and the age of the tree about 40 years. The pith ia made into a kind of sago, the leaves are writ- ten upon by the natives with a steel stylus; they are, moreover, made into fans, mats, and umbrellas. TALISMAN, a species of charm, con- sisting of a figure engraved on metal or stone when two planets are in conjunc- tion, or when a star is at its culminat- ing point, and supposed to exert some protective influence over the wearer of it. The terms talisman and amulet are often considered nearly synonymous, but the proper distinctive peculiarity of the former is its astrological character. A species of talisman which has acquired considerable celebrity is the abraxas. A species of talisman at present in use in Asia is a piece of paper on which the names of the Seven Sleepers and their dog Kitmer are inscribed. Pasted on the walls of houses, it is believed to be a protection against ghosts and demons. Phylacteries were used as talismans ; and in Christian Byzantium phylacteries were made bearing the figure of Solo- mon, the compeller of demons. See Astrology: Divination: Incantation: Magic. TALKING MACHINE. See GRAMO- PHONE. TALLADEGA, a city of Alabama, the county-seat of Talladega co. It is on the Southern, the Birmingham and At- lanta, and the Louisville and Nashville railroads. It is an important educa- tional center and the seat of the State schools for the deaf, dumb, and blind, Talladega College, and the Alabama Synodical College for Young Ladies. Its industries include cotton and cottonseed oil mills, chemical plants, hosiery fac- tories, fertilizer factories. Pop. (1910) 5,854; (1920) 6,546. TALIPOT, TALIPAT, or TALIPUT. TALLAHASSEE, a city, capital of the the Corypha umbraculifera, a palm tree, State of Florida, and county-seat of TALENT, figuratively: (1) A gift, en- dowment, or faculty; some peculiar fac- ulty, ability, power, or accomplishment, natural or acquired (a metaphor bor- rowed from the parable in Matt, xxv: 14-30). (2) Mental endowments or ca- pacities of a superior kind; general men- tal power (used in either the singular or the plural). (3) Hence, used for talented persons collectively; men of ability or talent. (4) Habitual backers of horses, or takers of odds, as opposed to the bookmakers, or layers of odds. In Greek antiquity, the name of a weight and also of a denomination of money among the ancient Greeks, and also applied by Greek writers and their translators to various standard weights and denominations of money among dif- ferent nations; the weight and value dif- fering in the various nations and at various times. As a weight, those in gen- eral use were the Eubo'ic or Attic talent = 56 pounds 11 ounces troy, and the jEginetan = about 82 Vi pounds. The Attic talent contained 60 Attic minas. As a denomination of money, it was a tal- ent's weight of silver, or a sum of money equivalent to this; so that in our current coin the Attic talent would be worth $1,185.84. The great talent of the Romans was equal to $483.25, and the little talent to $364.87 V2. The Hebrew talent (II Sam. xii: 30) was equal to 93 pounds 12 ounces avoirdupois; and as a denomination of money it has been variously estimated at from $1,520.31 to $1,926.54. The marginal note in the au- thorized version to Matt, xviii: 24, says that "a talent is 750 ounces of silver, which, at 5s. ($1.20) the ounce, is £187, 10s. ($900)." Ministry of all the Talents, a ministry of which Lord Grenville was the head, and Fox his colleague and supporter. It was formed on Jan. 26, 1806, three days after the death of Pitt, and, after under- going some changes was dissolved on March 25, 1807. Its nickname was given from the boast of Mr. Canning and others that it contained all the talent of the country — i. e., of both political parties in the State. TA-LIEN-WAN, a bay on the east coast of the Liaotung Peninsula, Man- churia. It is ice-free throughout the year, and as a result of its depth and roominess it is of considerable impor- tance. The port of Dalny is situated at its head. The bay, with the surrounding territory, was leased by Russia from China in 1898, and in 1905 was surren- dered to Japan.