838 — MELIACEZ. 
blackish’ brown colour, deeply fissured longitudinally, and “a 
minutely cracked transversely ; the small corky warts described 
above are still visible here‘and ‘there between the fissures. Old .— 
bark is generally in half quills; the total thickness being abot’ — 
half an inch; its colour isa rich red brown ; its substance when |, 
' soaked in water becomes very compact.’ 
_ Microscopie structure ~The ring of liber is made up of alter- s 
nate prosenchymatous and parenchymatous tissue. In the 
latter the larger cells are filled with mucilage, the others with © 
starch. The prosenchymatous groups of the liber exhibit the _ 
peculiar form known as hornbast: it chiefly contains the tannic¢ 
matter, besides stellate crystals of oxalate of calcium, which — 
are distributed through the whole tissue, of the bark. The — 
corky coat consists of vaulted cells. 3 
Chemical composition.—The bitter principle of the peel has Be 
been ascertained by Broughton to be a nearly colourless resinous _— 
‘substance, sparingly soluble in water, but more so in alcohol, 
ether or benzol. It does not appear to unite with acids of. — 
bases, and is less soluble in water containing them than im ~ 
‘pure water. It has avery bitter taste, and refuses to crystallise 
either from benzol orether. It contains no nitrogen. The bark 
is rich in tannic acid. The tree yields a gum which forms & 
good adhesive mucilage having a dextro-rotatory property with 
"polarized light. It thickens immediately with ferric chloride, — 
and gives no precipitate with neutral plumbic acetate. The | 
ash amounts to 2°11 per cent. = 
Commerce.—The bark is rot ay article of commerce. 5 . 
Barks of a similar character are yielded by— 
_ Chloroxylon Swietenia, pc., Wight IU. i., t. 565 
| Bedd. Fle Sylv., t. 11.” Billu (Tel.), Haladarava, Bheriya 
(Mar.),“Mududa, Vummaay, Kodavaporsh (Tam.), a native of 
Western Peninsula and Ceylon, yields an astringent bark 
which is sometimes prescribed by Hindu physicians under the’ 
_ names of Raktarohida and Ragatrora, a name applied in India — 
__ to several astringent barks. The suber of this bark is dark | 
3 = and Very. rough from the Presence of numerous ellipti 
