20 BUTEA FRONDOSA. 
renders it more brittle. Pure water dissolves it perfectly, and the so- 
lution is of a deep, clear, red colour. It is in a great measure soluble 
in spirits, but the solution is paler and_a little turbid; the watery 
solution also becomes turbid when spirit is added, and the spirituous 
more clear by the addition of water ; diluted vitriolic acid renders 
both solutions turbid; mild caustic vegetable alkali changes the 
colour of the watery solution to a clear, deep, fiery, blood red;* the 
spirituous it also deepens, but in a less degree ; sal martis changes 
the watery solution into a good durable ink. 
These are, I think, proofs that it contains a very small proportion 
of resin; in which it differs from the gum resin called Kino, or 
gummi rubrum astringens Gambiense, which the Edinburgh col- 
lege has taken into their Materia Medica (I have used the recent gum 
in making my experiments, which may make some difference), but 
as this can be most perfectly dissolved ina watery menstruum, it may 
prove of use where a spirituous solution of Kino (being the most 
complete) cannot be properly administered, consequently it may 
prove a valuable acquisition. 
Infusions of the flowers, either fresh or dried, dye cotton cloth, 
previously impregnated with a solution of alum, or alum and tartar, 
a most beautiful bright yellow, more or less deep according to the 
strength of the infusion: alittle alkali added to the infusion changes 
it to a deep redish orange, which dyes unprepared cotton cloth of 
the same colour, but the least acid changes it to a yellow, or lemon. 
These beautiful colours I have not been able to render perfectly per- 
manent. 
Among numberless experiments, I expressed a quantity of the 
juice of the fresh flowers, which being diluted with alum water, and 
rendered perfectly clear by depuration, was then evaporated by 
the heat of the sun, into a soft extract ; this proved a brighter water 
colour than any gamboge I have met with; it is one year since I 
first used it, and it remains bright. Infusions of the dried flowers 
yielded an extract very little, if any thing, inferior to this last men- 
tioned; they yield also a very fine, durable, yellow lake, and all 
these in a very large proportion. 
The Lac insects are frequently found on the small branches and 
the petioles of the leaves of this tree. Whether the natural juices of 
its bark contribute to improve the colour of their red nidus (colouring 
matter) I cannot say; to determine it, would require a set of experi- 
ments accurately made on specimens of lac gathered from the various 
trees it is found upon, at the same time, and as nearly as possible 
from the same place. . 
I do not find that the natives make any use of the gum or flowers, 
although they promise to be valuable; the former as a medicine, and 
the latter as a pigment and dying drug. 
22. BUTEA SUPERBA. 
Tiga Madea of the Telingas. 
Root spindle-form, very large. 
Stem twining, as thick or thicker than a man’s leg, woody, very 
long, running over large trees. Bark ash-coloured, pretty 
smooth. 
Branches like the stem but small, and with a smoother bark. 
Leaves alternate, three’d, remote, very large. Leaflets downy, in 
* With an alkalized decoction of this gum, I tried to dye cotton cloth prepared with 
alum, with sugar of lead, and with a solution of tin in aqua regia, but the reds produced 
thereby were bad; that where alum was employed was the best. 
BUTEA SUPERBA. 24 
other respects as in Butea frondosa, but greatly larger, the ter- 
minal one is generally about twenty inches long, and broad in 
proportion; the lateral somewhat less. , 
Racemes as in the former, but much larger. 
Flowers also the same, only much larger and more numerous. 
Calyx divided as the other, but the divisions longer and much more 
pointed. 
Corol the same. 
Legume and Seed as in the former, but rather larger. 
This is a very large twining shrub, a native of the mountains. 
Flowering time the beginning of the hot season. 
When this species is in full flower, I do not think the vegetable 
world offers a more gaudy show. The flowers are incomparably 
beautiful, very large, and very numerous; the colours are so exceed- 
ingly vivid, that my best painter has not been able with his utmost 
skill to imitate their brightness. 
From fissures in the bark, the same sort of ruby-coloured astrin- 
gent gum exsudes, the flowers also yield the same beautiful yellow 
dye and pigment. 
23. AILANTHUS EXCELSA. 
Pedda-maunchitto of the Telingas. 
Trunk perfectly straight, rising like that of the fir-tree to a very 
ereat height. ~ Bark smooth, ash-coloured. 
Branches pretty numerous, ascending. 
Leaves about the extremities of the branchlets, abruptly pinnated, 
generally about three feet long. Leaflets short-petiolated, from 
ten to fourteen pair, obliquely oblong, or somewhat sickle- 
form, the nerve runs so as to make the exterior portion twice 
as broad as the interior, very remotely and grossly serrated, or 
indented, smooth, about four inches long and two broad. 
Petiole round, smooth. 
Panicle terminal, very large. 
Bracts minute. 
Flowers exceedingly numerous, small, slightly tinged with yellow, 
hermaphrodite and male mixed. 
HERMAPHRODITE FLOWERS. 
Calyx as in the genus. 
Petals five, many times larger than the calyx. 
Nectary or Receptacle is a perforated, glandulous, notched body, 
which surrounds, and in a great measure hides, the germs. 
Filaments ten, shorter than the petals, inserted into the lower edge of 
the nectary. 
Germs above, from one to four, very minute, immersed im the per- 
foration of the nectary. 
Style none. 
Stigma small. 
Capsules from one to four, but generally one or two, not connected 
at the base, linear-oblong, surrounded with a large membrana- 
ceous wing, a little twisted at the apex and base. 
Seed one, flattened. 
MALE FLOWERS. 
Calyx, Corol, Nectary, and Stamens as in the hermaphrodite, but no 
rudiment of a pistil. 
This is an immense large tree, is found in many parts of the 
Circars, but is chiefly a native of the open valleys among the 
