RHAMNEA. . 855 
The red resin soluble in ether gaye a fine Seirasich ed with 
alkalies, and was totally precipitated from solution by acids. It 
F gave a crimson colour fading to a yellow, and dissolved in 
, concentrated sulphuric acid. With nitric acid it became an 
_ orange-brown solution, and was precipitated on the addition of 
water. It was quite tasteless, and had no crystalline structure 
a when evaporated from different solvents. 
The red acid resin soluble in alcohol constituted the larger part 
_ of theresins present. It differed from the resins soluble in ether 
ier ma yrs 
: : shaken with animal charcoal. Itis coloured deep red-brown with 
x potash, and is at once thrown down when neutralized with — 
__ The «resin appears to be changed by heat and acids into 
the red resin soluble in alcohol. The g-resin is known by its 
a insolubility in ammonia and fixed alkalies, but it affords red 
Solutions with strong nitric and sulphuric acids. It has a | 
brown colour which changes to greenon exposure to the air. Tt 
resembles “the light yellow resin or natural body ” found by 
Prescott in the bark of Cascara Sagrada. 
VENTILAGO MADRASPATANA, Gartn. 
Fig.— Wight Ic. t. 168; Gartn. Fruct. I. 223, t.49, f. 2 
Hab.—Southern India, Ceylon, Burma. The root bark. 
__ Vernacular.—Khandvel, Lokhandi(Mar.), Vembédam (Zam. ), 
a Popli-chukai (Can.), Strightindu-pnuita (Tel.). 
. History, Uses, &c.—Vembidam bark has long been 
used in Madras and Mysore as the source of a reddish brown — 
dye, the tint of which is fixed by means of kadukai (chebulic 
_ Myrobalans) and paddicarum (alum). Ainslie states that the — 
external application for the itch and other cutaneous eruptions. | 
He gives Raktavalli, “red creeper,” as the Sanskrit name. 
The bark of the stem serves as cordage, and the a 
Amboyna make ropes of it. Buchanan frequently m tions 
