51 INDICOFERA LiNirOLIA.
Leaves simpJc, alternate, nearly two-faced, sliort-petioled, for
various, from uval to narrow-lanced, entire, iioaiy, si
SHjmh, peliolaiy, dagger'd.
Rncimc axillary, sessile, as long or longer than the leaves.
I'loiocrs numerous, small, beautiful bright red.
Legume very small, hoary, globular, one-seeded,
This is the smallest species of the genus which I know. It
a native of dry, sandy, pasture ground.
XAN'TJIOCHYAIUS F 52
53 •lERMINALIA CIIEBULA,
196. XANTHOCHYMUS PICTORIUS.
Iwara-Mamady of the Telingas.
Calyx 5-leaved. Carol S-petnl'd. J^ectaries 5. Slamejis conjoined
itito 5 bodies. Apple 1-5-seedcd.
Trunk straight, of a considerable height, covered with scabrous
davk-colour'd bark.
Branches niunerous, spreading, forming a large shady evergreen
head.
Leaues oppo.sitc, petioled, linear-lanced, entire, pointed, very
smooth, shining, firm, 6 to 16 inchcs long, and from i j to
4 broad. Pe/iWe short, colour's!, \\'orm-like, surrounded witii
lulai
very rich cream, of a bright yellow colour, considerably acrid, and
somewhat nauseous to the taste. In the course of a few days it
hardens, and its taste becomes less acrid.
It makes a pretty good \vater colour, eitlier by itself as a yellow,
or in nu.-iture with other colours to form gieen, &c. It sinks in
spirits or water; in the first it is imperfectly soluble, but produces
a yellow tincture; it is still less soluble in water, and the tinctnre
is of a less deep colour. Alkaline salts enable the water to dissolve
more of the gum, the solution being of a dirty, deep yellow ; but
both solutions soon become turbid, and most of the gura i.s precipitated.
It melts and burns in the lire into a black coal, with much
smoke, but no particular smell.
From wounds made in the bark of the tree, a milky juice
exsudes, which soon becomes thick, and as it thickens inclines
more and more to yellow, It has no smell and little taste, when
first taken into the mouth, but after some time a sense of acrimony
and dryness is perceived extending a little way down the throat.
This juice, like that collected from the fruit, is imperfectly soluble
ils of
Slijmle
Flowers from i to 8, (brm small simple umbels fro
last year's leaves, or where they stood; they are white, and
when full blown, about the size of a shilling,
Pediecls one-flower'd, smooth, tliickening, about an inch long.
Calyx 5-leaved: leaflets concave, orbicular, unequal, permajient.
Pclals 5, orbicular, spreading.
J^ectmy: 5 yellow, short, broad, porous glands surround the germ,
standing alternately with the filaments.
Filamaiis from 1 5 to 20, conjoined into 5, Anthers twin.
Gem above, round.
Style very short,
targeted, 5-lobed: lobes oblong, spreading.
Pericarp: a round smooth apple, of a middling si^e, very little
pointed at the apex; «'hen ripe, of a beautifiil deep )'ellow
Seeds from 1 to 4, large, oblong, immersed in the pulp of the
apple,
A large tree, a native of moist valleys among the Gircar
mountains ; flowers in the hot season. Fruit ripe in November,
December, and January.
The ripe apples are eaten by the natives. They are very inviting
to the eye, and in taste little inferior to many of our
apples in England; I have often eat ihem myself, and have
no doubt, if meliorated by culture, that they would prove a delicious
fruit.
The green,but full grown fruit, yields a large quantityof agum,
very like Gummi Gutt<e. The best way to obtain it was by cutting
the apples across, and, as t h i yellow juice issued, (which it does
rapidly) to scrape it oft'. It is, when reecnt, of the consistence of a
197. TERMINALIA CHEBULA.
Rclz. obs. 5./;. 31.
Cadukay of the Telingas,
A large tree, with a tolerably erect trunk, and a large .spreading
shady ever-green head.
Jiark light ash-colour, and pretty smooth, except on the trunk of
large trees, where it is very scabrous, and deeply crack'd. Its
taste astringent and bitter.
Leaves nearly opposite, petioled, egg'd, above smooth, below
covered with a whitish down; round the under side of the
margin are many yellow glands, and ah;'ays two or three of
larger .size, where the leaf ends in the petiole; length about
six inches, breadth three and a half
Petioles about two inches long, round, have two or more glands on
tlieir sides near tlie apex.
Spike terminal, simple or compound, covered with yellow down.
Floiuers small, yellow; they are all, so far as I have seen, hermaphrodite,
Divpe oval, somewhat pentagonal, smooth, when ripe yellow, and
about the size of a pigeon's egg.
Xut oval, exceedingly hard.
A native of the mountainous parts of the Circai's; flowering
time April, May. andjune.
Tliis valuable, large tree, yields timber of considerable size,
hard, and durable, and is applied lo various ptn-poses by the
natives. The outer coat of the fruit is much used by the chintz
printers and dyers, on the coast of Coromandel, Its astringency
serves co fix the colours of the latter, and enables the painters to
give better defined outlines to their figures.
With this outer coat of the fruit and salt of steel. I have made a
better and more durable ink than what is brought to India from
England, By way of comparison, some line.s written with it on
paper, were exposed to the weather on the sajne day with two
other papers, the one written with best English cake ink, the
other with ink made of English ink powder. The re.sult was
much in favour of my ink ; for while the lines written with it
remained at a certain distance of time fairly legible, those on the
other papers were so faded as hardly to be <liscerned.
The excrescences called by the Hindoos of the Gircars Aldecay,
and by the Tamuls Cadacay. are galls of an irregular shape found
on the leaves of this tree, I know nothing more of their natural
history, having never ventuied so far among the mountains, as
•where they are i'ound, but I presume it is similar to that of other
galls, that is. they are produced from puncturcs made on the
tender leaves, by some insect, for the reception of her eggs. The
natives say they are produced by a particular wind which blows
at a certain season of the year. These galls are sold in every
market, being one of the most useful dying drugs with which the
natives are acquainted. With them and alum, the best and most
duiable yellow is dyed, and in conjunction with ferruginous mud,
a black is procured from them. They are much used also by the
chints-painiers. They seem to possess a stronger astringent quality
than the fruit; at least an ink made with them resisted the
weather longer than the ink prcpare'd with the fruit, I have little
doubt of these galls being the drug introduced into England
under the name of Bengal beans, Fab« Bengalenses, and recommended
as a strong astringent,"
I have found upon the leaves of the tree the larva of a Coccus
or Ghermes, They are about three-eighths of an inch long, and a
quarter of an inch broad. Hat below, convex above, and composed
of twelve annular segments. Eyes obscure, upon the anterior
margins ; antenna; short, hairy, moniliform ; mouth between the
anterior pair of legs. Legs 6, hairy, for creeping only. No tail.
They are replete with a bright, rich yellow colour.
Could these insects be collected in any quantity, I am inclined
to think, that they might prove as valuable a yellow dye, as
the red dye procured from the cochineal insect. The following
is the Hindoo directions for dying yellow, with Myrobalan
galls.
For dying six square yards oj bleached Calico.
The cloth is first bucked with cow-dung, and afterwards well
washed. Half a pound of the galls in powder, is infused in a
quantity of boiling water, sufficient for twice wetting the cloth.
In the infu-sion when cold, the cloth is repeatedly dipped,
till completely wetted ; then, without wringing, well dried either
in the SLUi or the shade. The same operation is once more repeated
in the l emnant of the same cold infusion.
The dried cloth is now to be steeped in a solution of alinn, and
again well dried. Finally it is washed in an alkaline lye.
From my own experiments, I think that the alkaline lye hurts
the colour ; tiiat tlie dye may be improved by preparing the cloth
with a solution of alum, and that some slight degree of coction is
required to exti-act the colouring principle of the galls,
o r the medical virtues of the Myrobalans, I have nothing to
offer from ni)- own experience. They are disregarded by the late
writers on tlie materia medica in Europe, and the colleges of
London and Edinburgh have rejected them from their catalogues
of officinal simples.^
• Djb I'lrtrLUcologu. p. SOS. GeolTroy Mcdicjfflcns Exotiques, Vol, 111. p, 131,
+ The M)rol.r,hns oonllimc slill in rep.uc among ilic Arab physici:,n5 i.i Syria and
lî^ypl, under llic naino Hnleelidgc, ^ P. ÎtuarU.
198. TERMINALIA BELLERICA.
Myrobalanus Bellerica, Brcyn. icon. 18. tei. 1,
Tani. Rheed. mal. A. p. 2S. t. 10.
Toandy of the Telingas.
Tandra Maram of the Tamuls. Kmdg.
crowded about the extremities of ihc branches, petioled,
oval, entire, firm, smooth, six or seven inches long, and two
and a half broad.
Peliolcs round, 2-3 inches long; two opposite glands on the upper
side of the apex and sometimes one near the base.
Sjdke axillary, .solitary, simple, erect.
Flotcers small, dirty giay colour. Male toward.s the apex of the
spike, liermaphrodite below.
Drupe oval, somewhat pentagonal, size of a luumeg, Ilesliy, covered
with a gray silky down. Tl.e kernels of the fruit are eaten
by the natives; they taste like filberts, but are reckoned
intoxicating when eaten in great quantity.
Thi,', of tl ; parts of the
Circars ; one of the largest trees, with an < ik and a very
large spreading heati.
The natives do not use any part of the fruit of this tree in
medicine, so far as I can learn. The wood is white, rather soft,
not durable, and seldom used. From wounds i.i the bark, veiy
large quantities of an insipid gum issues, which resembles gum
arable, is perfectly soluble in water, and burns in the Name of a
candle into black gritty ashes, with little smell in fuming. The
flowers have a strong offensive smell, not unlike Sterculia fcetida.
199. MIMOSA EBURNEA.
Linn, svppl. 437,
M very trilling.
Branches remote, spreading in every directio
ceeedingly stiff.
Bark ash-colour'd.
Thorns stipulary, very large, united at the base, straight, round,
smooth, very sharp and solid, covered (except the sharp
brown point) with a white, smooth crust; from 1 to 2 inches
long.
íífliTíJscatter'd, twice-feather'd, hairy, about an inch long. Feathers
4-8 pair, half an inch long. Leajlets 6-12 pair, exceedingly
1 petiole, just below the
Gland one, largo, flat, on the c
lowermost pair of feathers.
Pedmides axillary, from three to six, length of the leaves, jointed
and bracted near the middle, each bearing a small globular
head of yellow corollets.
Stamens many, distinct.
Receptacle of the corollets chaffy, as in many of the syngenesious
plants. Chaff wedge-form. Apex ciliated, length of the
calyx.
Legumes y cry numerous, about three-eighihs of an inch broad, and
two or three inches long, but twisted in various directions.
Seeds 8-12.
Is a native of forests; a small ill looking tree, or large ramous
rigid shrub. Flowering time the cold season.