534 POLYANDRIA MONOGYNIA. DwspyrUH. 



amongst the mountains in the Circars. Leaves not deci- 

 duous. Flowering time, March and April. 



Trunk erect, straight, middle sized. Bark pretty smooth, 

 of a dark blackish rust colour. Branches spreading, 

 scattered; young shoots smooth. Leaves alternate, short- 

 petioled, bifarious, linear-oblong, pointed, smooth, firm, 

 shining; when young soft and red, six inches long and 

 •two broad. Stipules a single variegated one which bursts 

 and falls when the leaf begins to expand. 



Male Peduncles axillary, single, bowing, bearing 

 three four or more small white flowers. Bractes, a small 

 deciduous one, below each pedicel. Calyx and coiol as 

 in the genus. Filaments about twenty, bifid at the point. 

 Anthers about forty, linear, erect. 



Hermaphrodite Peduncles axillary, single, un- 

 divided, bearing one white flower, which is considerably 

 larger than the male. Calyx and corol as in the genus. 

 Filaments one, two, three, or four, small, short. Anthers 

 linear, small, sterile. Germ globular, eight-celled, with 

 one ovula in each, attached to the top of the axis. Styles 

 four, spreading. Stigmas branched, generally three-cleft. 

 Berry globular, as large as a middle-sized apple, pulpy, 

 rusty, yellow when ripe and covered with a rust colour- 

 ed farina. Seeds generally eight, immersed in pulp, re- 

 niform, straight, thin at the edge. The wood of this tree 

 is but of an indifferent quality, and not much used. 



The ripe fmit is eaten by the natives, but I cannot 

 say it is palatable ; it is strongly astringent. 



Sir William Jones writes me from Calcutta on the 29th 

 December 1791, that the name by which this tree is ge- 

 nerally known in Bengal is Gaub, (in Sanscrit it is call- 

 ed Tindooka,) and that the astringent viscid mucus of the 

 fruit, is used all over that country, for paying the bot- 

 tom of boats. The unripe fruits contain a very large 

 proportion of Tannin. An infusion is employed to steep 

 fishing nets in, to make them more durable, and proba- 

 bly adds to their strength. 



