200 



LEGUMINOS^. 



Kurnool Hills, Cuddapah and North Arcot (W. and N.W. of Madias). 

 The tree is now being raised in regular plantations/ 



The wood is a staple article of produce, and the felling of the trees 

 is strictly controlled by the forest inspectors. The fine trunk-wood is 

 highly valued by the natives for pillars in their temples and other 

 buildings, as well as for turnery. The stumps and roots are exported 

 to Europe as a dye-stuff, mostly from Madras. 



History — It is difficult to tell whether the appellation Red Sandal- 

 wood used in connexion with Yellow and White Sandal- wood by some of 

 the earlier writers on drugs, was intended to indicate the inodorous dye- 

 wood under notice or the aromatic wood of a species of Santalum. Yet 

 when Marco Polo^ alludes to the sandal- wood imported into China, and 

 to the red sandal ("Cendal vermeil''') which grows in the island of 

 Necuveran (Nicobar), it is impossible to doubt that he intended by this 

 latter name some such substance as that under notice. 



Garcia de Orta, who wrote at Goa in the middle of the 16th century, 

 clearly distinguished the fragrant sandal of Timor from the red inodorous 

 wood of Tenasserim and the Coromandel Coast. It is remarkable that 

 the wood of Pt. santalinus is distinguished to the present day in all the 

 languages of India by names signifying red-coloured 8andal-wood,thon^^'{ 

 it has none whatever of the peculiarities of the odorous wood of 

 Santalum. Eed Sanders Wood was formerly supposed to possess medi- 

 cinal powers : these are now disregarded, and it is retained in use only 

 as a colouring agent. 



During the middle ages, it was used as well as alkanet for culinaij 

 purposes, such as the colouring of sauces and other articles ot food- 

 ihe price in England between 1326 and 1399 was very variable, but 

 on an average exceeded 3s. per lb.' Many entries for the purchase oi 

 Red Sanders along with spices and groceries, occur in the accounts oi 

 the Monastery of Durham, A.D. 1530-34.' 



Description— The wood found in English commerce is mostly that 

 ot the lower parts of the stem and that of the thickest roots, ij 

 appears in the market in ponderous, irregular logs, rarely exceeding tn 

 thickness of a man's- thigh and commonly much smaller, 3, 4 or o leet ^ 

 length; they are without bark or sap wood, and are externally ot a aa 

 colour. The internal wood is of a deep, rich, blood-red, exhibiting 

 transverse section zones of a lighter tint, and taking a fine pohsh^ 



At the present day, druggists generally buy the wood rasped 

 small chips, which are of a deep reddish brown hue, tasteless and neax j 

 without odour. 



M 



iirt 



. The wood is built up for the greater Pj^.^ 



of long pointed cells, having thick walls (libriform). Througn j 

 bgneous tissue, there are scattered small groups of very large vess _ 

 In a direction paraUel to the circumference of the stem, there are 



/ifiof. f^'P^^-'^^' Madras, 1870, pp. 

 author, tab-^ xxT '^'^ °^ *^^ '''^'"^ 



Andaman IslaiX ^ *^^ ^^^'"'"'^ 



7 Prices »* 

 » Rogers, Acjrkidtnre, ana. ^ ^jy^g 



England, 1866 i. 63b - ^^„'/the sai^e 

 average price of a sheep ^viri"= 



period was aboiifc Is. 6a. c,,rtees Soc* 



^ * Durham Household Bool; ^J^^ j^^„a. 

 1844. 215 ; also Pegge, Form </C«ry, 

 1780. p. XV. 



