356 
Ponna s. Ponna-maram. Zeed. Mal. v. 4. p. 16. t. 38. 
Pinny-marum. Tamal. 
This grows to a fine umbrageous free. Roots spreading 
near the surface, going off at nearly right angles with the 
trunk, large and strong. Stem short, thick, knotted, and in 
old trees very rough and cracked: the bark brown, tinged 
with green externally, internally red, and when wounded 
much yellow juice exudes, which concretes into a green 
transparent resin. Branches numerous and large, abounding 
in leafy, glabrous, rounded branchlets. Leaves opposite, 
decussate, obovato-elliptical, entire, retuse, or emarginate, 
glabrous, of a dark shining-green above, pale beneath, 
beautifully marked with fine close parallel veins, between each 
pair of which, when cut, a drop of thick cream-coloured juice 
exudes. Flowers numerous, white, and fragrant. Racemes 
axillary, pedicells opposite, decussate. Calyx 4-leaved, 
leaves obovate, obtuse, concave, white, two of them smaller. 
Corolla of four petals, similar to the calyx in colour and 
texture, and somewhat resembling it also in form, but larger. 
Stamens numerous; filaments short, monadelphous at the 
base; anthers oblong, at first orange-coloured, afterwards 
brown. Pistil: Germen superior: Style filiform, often 
variously bent: Stigma peltate, flat, — Pericarp, a globular 
drupe. Nut l-seeded; when mature, the fleshy part begins 
to wither, and the fruit drops. ; 
This most beautiful tree is common all along this coast, aS 
well as in Malabar, and is used in a variety of ways T 
wood, which is very tough, and of a coarse, uneven grain, 1 
much employed for ship-building; the lower part of the 
roots forming excellent ready-made knees. The suckers, 
(stolones,) which are numerous and straight, and also e 
branches possessing these qualities, are esteemed from their 
property of being either not liable to attacks of the white 
ants, or from their power of resisting them. From the seeds, 
a thick dark-coloured oil, fit for burning, is procured, and the” 
withered husks are carefully collected, as a cheap and useful fuel 
in the preparation of shells for lime, the only material when” 
that useful substance is obtained near this coast. The rejec 
