SAPOTACEAE. 357 
The use of bakha has been prohibited in Government distil. 
~ leries in Calcutta and its suburbs, For further information 
on Mahwa spirit, we would refer the reader to the report of 
the Commission of 1883-84 on the excise of country spirit in 
Bengal. A kind of gutta-percha has been prepared from the 
milky juice of B. latifolia, which has the consistence of 
ordinary gutta, but is more adhesive and hardens much more 
rapidly. Used alone it cannot replace the gutta of commerce, 
but mixed with an equal proportion of that article, it may be 
used to make the moulds required in galvanoplastic operations ; 
the mixture is as easily manipulated in hot water as ordinary 
gutta. (Heckel and Schlagdenhauffen.) | 
Description.—Bassia bark is thick and red coloured, 
with a rough brown surface and astringent taste. The trees 
__ produce cream-coloured flowers in March and April, and in 
August a reddish-yellow fruit from 1 to 2 inches long, which 
contains from 1 to 4 seeds; these are light brown, about 1} 
inch Jong and 3 of an inch broad, irregularly ovoid in shape, 
with a large scar on one side and a ridge on the other, termi- 
nating in two slight prominences ; the shell is thin and brittle, 
and the seed consists of two large oily cotyledons, easily sepa- 
rated, white when fresh, but soon turning brown when kept.. 
They yield a greenish-yellow oil, which becomes a solid white 
mass in the cold weather ; that of B. butyracea remains solid at 
ee C., whereas the oils of B. latifolia and B. longifolia melt at 
(268° 3° 0. 
The dried flowers at a little distance have the appearance of 
_ raisins, on closer inspection they are seen to be fleshy, sticky, 
‘compressed, hollow bodies, about 74 of an inch long, and 
nearly as broad, with an aperture at both ends, the upper 
being much the larger and serrated. Upon being soaked in 
“water they assume an almost globular form, and the numerous 
ers are seen attached by very short filaments to the inside of 
the corolla. The taste is acid and sweet. The fleshy substance 
of the corrolla, which is about ~y of an inch in thickness and 
ent: eopsiste of a parenchyma which may be cdingded : 
