VBRBENACEjE. 53 



met in tlie trunks at a height of about six feet from the ground. 

 By the natives the lime is burnt and used for chewing v^^ith. pan. 

 On examination it was foimd there was no structure in these 

 masses, which would justify a conclusion that they had been 

 formed by insects. Some included portions of decayed wood 

 and seemed to be cemented together by the lime." 



Major-G-eneral Morgan, late Deputy Conservator of Forests, 

 Madras, speaks of it in the following terms in his " Forestry of 

 Southern India " ; " It is a curious fact that in the Wjoiaad 

 though there is no free lime in the soil, yet Teak [Tectona gran- 

 dls) and Blackwood {Dalbergia latifoUa), if wounded near the 

 .ground, contrive to absorb large quantities of lime. It may be 

 seen encrusting the tree on the surface as far as four feet in 

 height,^ from three inches to a foot in width, and two or three 

 inches in thickness. The lime is so hard that it destroys cir- 

 cular saws, and the Carumburs use it for chewing with betel." 



Desciiption. — Trunk erect, growing to an immense size; 

 bark ash-coloured and scaly; branches numerous, spreading; 

 young shoots 4-sided, sides channelled ; leaves opposite, petioled, 

 spreading, oval, a little scalloped, above scabrous, below covered 

 with whitish rather soft down, they are larger at a distance 

 from the flowers, and on young trees, viz., from 12 to 24 inches 

 long and from 8 to 16 broad; petioles short, thick, laterally 

 compressed ; panicles terminal, very large, cross-armed, divisions 

 di chotomous, with a sessile 'fertile flower in each cleft, the whole 

 covered with a hoary, farinaceous substance; peduncles common, 

 quadrangular, sides deeply channelled, angles obtuse; bracts 

 opposite, lanceolate, two at each sub-division; floAvers small 

 white, very numerous; calyx and corolla oftener six than five 

 cleft ; nectary very small, frequently wanting, stamens often 

 SIX ; germ superior, round, hairy, 4-celled, with one ovule in 

 each attached to the axis; stigma 2-cleft, divided, obtuse, spread- 

 ing ; drupe within the enlarged, inflated, dry calyx obtusely 

 4-sided, woolly, spongy dry ; nut exceedingly hard, 4-celled. 

 (Roxh.) The wood has a peculiar aromatic odour. The tar 

 obtamed from it is black and opaque when properly made, but 



