; LEGUMINOSH. — : 507 
a POINCIANA ELATA, Linn. 
_ Fig.—Bedd. Fl. Syl. 178. 
a | ‘Hab.— Western Pennisula. Cultivated elsewhere. 
-Vernacular.—Sandesra (Guz.), Vada-narayanan (Tam.). 
_ Description.—An erect tree, 20—30 feet high. Leaves 
_ $—2ft. long; pinne 10—16; leaflets 30—40, membranous, 
* caducous, close, sessile, obtuse, ligulate. Flowers in corymbose 
racemes ; pedicels obovoid; buds finely grey-downy ; calyx 
ery coriaceous, $—1 inch long, petals scarcely exserted, an 
inch broad, shortly clawed. Filaments bright red, 3—4 times 
the length of the calyx, downy near the base ; pod 6—8 inches 
long by above an inch broad, 4—8 seeded. (Flora Br. Ind.) 
uch cultivated in Guzerat. The natives consider the leaves 
to be of a very hot nature and good for rheumatism and 
flatulence; they are much used by women after confinement, 
e dose being 8 tolas of the juice with 3 tolas of ghi every 
‘morning, and strict diet for 15 days. There isa superstition 
‘that the touch of the root removes the pain of a scorpion 
‘Important. 
 SARACA INDICA, Linn. 
Fig.—Bodd, Fl. Syl, t. 57; Burm. Fl. Ind., 85, t. 25, 
f.2; Wight Ic.,t. 206; Bot. Mag., 3018. The Asoka tree. 
(Zng.), Jonésia Asjogam (F’r-). 
~Hab.—Himalaya to Ceylon. The bark. 
- Vernacular. —Asok (Hind., Beng.), Ashoka (Mar.), Asupdla 
(Guz.), Ashogam (Tam.), Asoka (Can.). ey 
_ History, Uses, &c.—This tree is covered with cymes 
of rich orange-coloured flowers in March and April which gra~ 
dually turn red. In the fourth act of the Mricchakatika it is 
‘sting. The gum is dark-coloured and mucilaginous, but un- — 
likened to a blood-stained warrior. Asoka is famed in Hindu . : ; 
. 
