Pde DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA. Dalbergia. 
This is one of our largest mountain trees, Flowers during 
the wet season, The seeds ripen in February and March. 
Trunk erect, though rarely straight, often very thick and 
rising to a very great height. Branches spreading, very nu- 
merous, forming a large, shady head, Leaves alternate, 
pinnate, with an odd one, from six to nine inches long; leaf- 
leis from three to seven, generally five, alternate, the exte- 
rior ones largest, roundish, emarginate, a little waved, above 
smooth, covered with a little whitish down underneath, ge- 
nerally about two inches each way, Petioles round , smooth, 
Stipules none. Panicles axillary, small, erect. Flowers 
small, white. Calyx hoary, five-toothed. Filaments ten, 
united into one, open above. Anthers twin, singly globular. 
Germ pedicelled, smooth. Stigma simple. Legume pedi- 
celled, lanceolate, thin, brittle, when ripe crambling away, 
not opening spontaneously, about an inch broad, and two and: 
a half or more long. Seed generally but one in the centre 
of the legume, reniform, smooth, compressed, brown, of the 
size of a very small French bean. 
The wood of the centre of the trank and large branches of 
this tree, is what is commonly called black wood, and is al- 
most universally used for making furniture ; its colour is 2 
greenish or greenish black, with lighter coloured veins run- 
ning in various directions, which gives it that beautiful ap- 
pearance, so much admired ; it is rather heavy, sinking 
water, close-grained, and admitting of the finest polish. On 
the Malabar coast this tree must grow to an immense size, a8 
I have seen planks from thence, full three feet and a balf 
broad, and if we allow nine inches of white wood to have been 
on the outside of these trees, the circumference must have 
been fifteen feet exclusive of the bark. 
In Bengal, where the tree is common, the wood is know? 
by the name Sit-sal, and is certainly not so heavy as that on 
the coast of Coromandel and Malabar, though fi wit 2 as beau- 
tiful, and very much ased for furniture. 
