Pterocarpns. diadelpiiia decandria. 237 



feet higl), blossoming during- tlie rains in June and July 

 chiefly, and ripening their seeds eight months after. 



Trunk straight. Bark pretly smooth for so large a tree, 

 ash-coloured, liranches niunerous, spreading-. Branchleta 

 alternate, bifarious; youvg shoots somewhat scabrous, with 

 small gray dots. Leaves bifarious, alternate, pinnate, spread- 

 ing', from six to twelve inches long. Leaflets about four or 

 five pair, with a single terminal one, alternate, short petiolet- 

 ted ; (he inferior ones ovate-oblong; the superior ones long- 

 er, and narrower in proportion, all are entire, and smooth on 

 both sides, from two to tiirce inches long. Petioles round, 

 smooth, about six inches long. Stipules none. Panicles ter- 

 minal, ramifications alternate, bifarious, expanding with iheir 

 extremities, while young of a beautifid dark greenish violet- 

 colour. Bractes one-flowered, ovate, villous, small, cadu- 

 cous. Floivers papilionaceous, altjernate, solitary, short-pe- 

 dicelled, pure yellow, delightfully fragrant. Cahjx somewhat 

 gibbous; mouth of five, unequal divisions, the upper two 

 being by far the largest. Corol ; vexillum oval ; margins re- 

 flexed back and beautifully curled. Winr/s projecting-, 

 long-clawed, pressing on the calyx, with margins curled, as 

 in the vexillum. Keel of two small petals. JFilaments two, 

 most distinct, as in Dalbergia, hence the specific name; above 

 the middle they divide into five, alternately w ith somewhat 

 shorter filaments each. Anthers oval. Germ swelled, villous, 

 dark greenish, violet. Style subulate. Stigma acute. Legume 

 two-celled, pedicelled, sub-rotund, a small part of the upper 

 margin oidy being more straight, the whole surrounded with 

 a broad, mend^ranaceous maro in : the centre where one or two 

 .seeds are lodged, is of a firm, ligneous, fibrous, tough texture, 

 not opening spontaneously. Seeds reniform, a single one in 

 each cell. 



On the Andaman Islands, where the tree is indigenous, it 

 grows to an immense size. I have seen planks of it brought 

 from thence, which were four feet in diameter, of coloured 

 wood ; and if six or eight inches be allowed for the w hite wood 



