212. SHOREA ROBUSTA.* 
Gaertn. sem. 3. p. 48. tab. 186. 
Salu the Sanscrit name, and Saul of the Hindoos and Bengalese. 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Calyx 5-leaved, imbricate, permanent, and enlarging into five long 
wings, round the capsule. Corol 5- petalled. Capsule above, 
one-cell’d, one-valved, one-seeded. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Trunk. sraight, of great thickness and height in full grown trees ; 
beams being sometimes brought down 24 inches square, and 
thirty, or more, feet in length. 
Leaves alternate, short-petioled, cordate-oblong, entire, smooth, 
firm, pale-greenish colour, with many simple, parallel, nearly 
opposite veins ; from 4 to 8 inches long. 
Stipules caducous, dotted with minute glands. 
Panicles terminal, and from the exterior axills, spreading, very 
ramous, downy. 
Flowers numerous, pretty large, pale yellow. 
Bractes small, caducous. 
Calyx beneath, five-leaved: Jeaflets unequal, downy on the outside, 
permanent, and enlarging into five long Wings, surround- 
ing with their base the pericarp. 
Petals five, obliquely ovate-lanceolate, 3 or 4 times longer than 
the calyx; margins towards the apex revolute; on the out- 
side somewhat sericeous. 
Filaments from 25 to 30, longer than the calyx, inserted round the 
base of the germ; lower half broad and membranaceous. 
Anthers two-lobed, gaping round the apex, with a minute 
bristle between the openings. 
Germ conical. Style awl-shaped, permanent. Stigma small. 
Capsule ovate, pointed, one-cell’d, of a tender consistence, covered 
with soft, grey down, and enveloped by the enlarged leaflets 
of the calyx, each of them being now furnished with a long, 
wedge-shaped, reticulated, membranaceous wing. 
Seed solitary (rarely two), of the shape, and size of the capsule. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This majestic tree is a native of the skirts of the northern 
mountains of India ; Calcutta is supplied with the timber thereof, 
chiefly from Morung ; flowering time the hot season, seed ripe in 
three months thereafter. 
The wood of this tree is in very general use near Bengal, for 
beams, rafters, and various other economical uses ; it is of an uni- 
form light brown colour, close grained, and heavy ; at the same time 
it does not appear to be very durable, and on that account greatly 
inferior to Teak ; for in strength it certainly surpasses it consider- 
ably, and appears to me to deserve the second place amongst our 
India timber trees, Teak being the first. This as well as some 
other species of the same genus, yields large quantities of the re- 
sin, commonly called Dammer in India, and very generally used, 
as a substitute for pitch in the Marine yard. The best pieces are 
also frequently used, instead of the common incense, (Benzoin,) in 
the temples of the Hindoos. 
In the plate, the dissected flower is magnified ; the fruit of its 
natural size. 
*So named in honour of the Right Honourable Lord Teignmouth, late Governor 
General of Bengal, kc. 
VOL IIT. 
10 
213. DIPTEROCARPUS TURBINATUS. 
Gaertn. sem. 3. p. 51. tab. 188. 
Tiliah-gurjeon of the Hindoos, in Tipperah and Chittagong. 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Calyx beneath, one-leaved, permanent; two of the five divisions 
of its border growing, with the pericarp, into two very large 
membranaceous wings. Corol five-petalled. Capsule ovate, 
one-cell’d, one-seeded. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Trunk straight throughout to the very top of the tree, and growing 
to an immense size ; even so large as to be made into canoes 
that will carry one hundred men. Bark pretty smooth. 
Branches ascending: branchlets alternate, bifarious, round, smooth. 
Leaves alternate, short-petiol’d, bifarious, ovate-oblong, some entire, 
some waved, and even some are serrate ; both sides smooth, 
deep shining green; veins many, straight, simple, and 
parallel; from four to twelve inches long. 
Stipules within the leaves, large, sword-shaped, downy, caducous. 
Spikes subaxillary, solitary, shorter than the leaves, smooth. 
Flowers solitary, remote, alternate, large. 
Calyx beneath, one-leaved. Tube rather gibbous. Border five-parted, 
irregular ; two of the divisions being very much larger than 
the other three ; these two continually increasing, until the 
seed is ripe. , 
Petals five, narrow, obliquely wedge-shaped, smooth on both sides 
and entire, except that sometimes they are emarginate. 
Filaments about thirty, short, inserted round the base of the germ. 
Anthers ensiform, ending in long, tapering, acute points. 
Germ above, ovate. Style erect, length of the stamina. Stigma per- 
forated. 
Capsule ovate, pointed, one-celled, one-valved, of a tender consist- 
ence, covered with short, soft, hairy down, and enveloped 
in the enlarged Calyx ; the two larger divisions of its border 
are now, two very large, linear oblong wings, beautifully 
reticulated with veins and nerves. 
Seed solitary, shape of the capsule; from its apex the embryo of 
the future plant issues. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This immense tree is a native of Chittagong, Tipperah, Pegu, 
and other countries to the eastward of Bengal. Flowering time the 
beginning of the hot season; seed ripe in June aud July. 
This tree is famous over the eastern parts of India, and the 
Malay Islands, on account of its yielding a thin, liquid balsam, 
commonly called Wood-oil ; which is much used for painting ships 
and houses in India. 
To procure the balsam, a large notch is cut intothe trunk of the 
tree, near the earth; say about thirty inches from the ground, 
where a fire is kept up until the wound is charr’d, soon after 
which the liquid begins to ooze out. A small gutter is cut in the 
wood, to conduct the fluid into a vessel placed to receive it. 
The average produce of the best trees, during the season, is 
said to be sometimes as highas forty gallons. Itis found necessary 
every three or four weeks, to cut off the old charr’d surface, and 
burn it afresh; and in large, healthy trees, abounding in balsam, 
they even cut a second notch, in some other part of the tree, and 
