SAPOTACEZ. 363 
their perfume, which they retain when dry; pillows are some- 
times stuffed with them, and they afford a distilled water. The 
juice of the bark and unripe fruit is used by silk dyers to fix 
colours. Rumphius states that the pounded leaves are applied 
to cure headache, that a decoction of the root is given in angina, 
_ whilst a plaster made from them is applied externally, The 
_ Tipe fruit pounded and mixed with water is given to promote 
delivery in childbirth. (Hort. Amb, III., 17.) Horsfield (Asiat. 
Journ. VII, p. 262) describes the bark as an astringent tonic, 
and Dr. Bholananth Bose states that a decoction of it forms a 
good gargle in salivation. (Pharm. of India, p. 181.) 
Description.—The substance of the bark is red, it is 
covered externally by a very thick grey suber on the older 
branches, which separates in irregular scales, leaving isolated 
a attached portions which consist of five or more distinct suber- 
_ ous layers ; the inner surface is red and presents a coarsely 
_ Striated surface; fracture short, disclosing white specks and 
‘Stains in the substance of the bark caused by the drying up 
of the milky juice which it contained when fresh, The taste 
< is bitter, astringent and mucilaginous. 
_ The flowers are white and fragrant; calyx inferior, sight 
leaved, in a double series ; leaflets lanceolate, the four exterior 
ones leathery, larger and porniationt corolla one-petalled, tube 
very short, fleshy, border composed of a double series of seg- 
ments; the exterior one consists of sixteen, spreading ; the 
. interior one of eight, generally contorted, and converging, all 
are lanceolate, a little torn at their extremities ; nectary eight- 
__ Teaved, conical, ragged, hairy near the base, inserted alter- 
_ nately with the filaments into the mouth of the tube, converging 
filaments eight, short, hairy; anthers linear, sharp-pointed 
below, two parted, converging. The berry is oval, smooth, when 
_ Tipe yellow, and edible, one or more celled, according to the 
_ number of seeds that ripen ; seed solitary, oblong, compressed, 
attached | to the bottom of the cell, covered with a smooth, 
, thick =p Ge lined with a veined membrane ; peris- 
afo —— a 
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