Tectona. fentandiua monogynia. (501 



Teling. Teek. 



Cent. Jaadt*. 



Beng. Sagoon, or Segoon. 



This most useful tree is a native of various parts of India, 

 viz. the mountainous parts of the Malabar and Coromandel 

 coasts, of the mountains bordering- on the banks of the Go- 

 davwree above Rajamundr?, and of Pegu. Lord Cornwallis 

 and Colonel Kyd have sometime since begun to introduce it 

 into Bengal, where it thrives well. On this coast it flowers in 

 June and July. The seeds ripen in September and October. 

 In Bengal, the leaves are deciduous during the cool season ; 

 and the new foliage appears in May, a few weeks before the 

 flowers. 



Trunk erect, growing to an immense size. Bark ash-co- 

 loured and scaly. Branches numerous, spreading ; young 

 shoots four-sided, sides channelled. Leaves opposite-petiol- 

 ed, spreading, oval, a little scolloped, above scabrous, below 

 covered with whitish, rather soft down, they are larger at 

 a distance from the flowers and on young trees, viz. from 

 twelve to t *o^iy-four inches long, and from eight to sixteen 

 broad. Petioles short, thick, laterally compressed. Pani- 

 cles terminal, very large, cross-armed ; divisions dichotomous, 

 with a sessile fertile flower in each cleft ; the whole covered 

 with a hoary coloured, farinaceous substance. Peduncles 

 common, quadrangular ; sides deeply channelled, angles ob- 

 tuse. Bractes opposite, lanceolate, two at each sub-division. 

 Flowers small, white, very numerous. Calyx and corol as 

 described by Konig, only oftener six than five-cleft. Nec- 

 tary very small, frequently wanting. Stamens often six. 

 Germ superior, round, hairy, four-celled, with one ovulum 

 in each attached to the axis. Stigma two-cleft, divided, ob- 

 tuse, spreading. Drupe within the enlarged, inflated, dry 

 calyx, obtusely four-sided, woolly, spongy, dry. Nut ex- 

 ceedingly hard, four-celled, &c. as accurately described by 

 Gartner, carp. i. 257. t. 7. 



The wood of this tree, the only useful part of it, has from 



