SANDALWOOD. 

 CHAPTER III. 



SANDALWOOD. 



THE Sandalwood tree is scientifically recognized as the 

 Santalum Album or white Sandalwood belonging to the 

 natural order Santalaceoe or Sandalwood family, a dicoty- 

 ledonous plant composed of trees, shrubs and herbs, 

 the genus Santalum is the type, a small tree twenty or 

 thirty feet with numerous branches forming more or less 

 spherical heads, leaves opposite, on short stalks, oblong, 

 smooth, entire, with a fine bloom below, panicles with 

 their principal breadth in the middle axillary flower 

 stalks opposite, usually three-flowered, with numerous, 

 small, straw-colored flowers, changing to a deep purple, 

 inodourous, the outer floral envelope or calyx four cleft, 

 there being no inner envelope or corolla. Berry, round, 

 smooth, and black, when ripe, succulent with a persistent 

 calyx the fruit is a celled nut solitary. The species are 

 natives of Asia, the tropical parts of Australia, and the 

 Pacific Ocean. The white Sandalwood is a native of Malabar 

 on the hills of which it grows as a large tree. It is also 

 found in Coimbatore, Mysore, Canara, Salem, Madras, &c. 

 Mysore produces the best Sandalwood, two kinds of the 

 wood are procurable in the market both being the produce 

 of the same tree. The white Sandalwood comprises the 

 outer layers of wood, is hard, heavy and susceptible of a 

 good polish. The yellow or brownish wood is obtained from 

 the heart of the tree, and is the most valuable and best 

 esteemed. The heart or heavier wood comes chiefly from 

 the lower parts of the stem, is strongly scented, hard, takes 

 a good polish, and is well adapted for carving, turniug, &c., 

 and is easily cleft. The odour is strong and enduring due to 

 the presence of an essential oil. The scent is dependent 

 chiefly on the soil, and the elevation at which it grows a 

 third kind of Sandalwood or Saunder's wood, or red 

 Sandalwood as it is called, is met with in the market, 

 the produce of the Pterocarpus Santalinus belonging to 

 the natural order Leguminosce, and produces a valuable 

 dye, and takes a fine polish. Sandalwood is in greafc 

 demand by cabinet-makers and other artizaus more espe- 

 cially from China and India, it is largely used for carving 



