7O The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



tree. Pistacia, vera is the tree of which the fruit is the pistachio 

 nut, much imported into India, a native of the warmer parts of 

 Central Asia, and supposed to be the nuts of Gen. xliii. 11. Mastic 

 is produced from another tree of the same genus. And another 

 species, P. terebinthus, is said by Hooker to be what is variously 

 called in the Bible the turpentine tree, the teil tree, the elm and the 

 oak : elsewhere called the Terebinth. 



ORDER 40. MORINGE.E. 



Deciduous trees with soft wood; leaves alternate pinnate, 

 with glands at the base ; flowers irregular in panicles, calyx 

 cup-shaped with 5 unequal petaloid segments, petals 5 unequal; 

 stamens 5 perfect and 5 imperfect inserted on the edge of the 

 disk, ovary stalked, style slender tubular, capsule angled, corky 

 within. 



Perhaps the smallest of all orders, as it contains but one genus and 

 three species. Outwardly they are very like some of the Legumi- 

 nosae, but the fruit is not really a pod, and there are other differ- 

 ences which make Bentham and Hooker call the genus absolutely 

 anomalous. 



MORINGA genus as the order. 



1. M. pterygosperma. The horse-radish tree ; sometimes also 

 called the drumstick tree. Leaves very large, twice or thrice 

 pinnate, leaflets very small, oblong or oval, smooth ; calyx as 

 well as petals white, capsule pod-like, a foot long, slender, 3- 

 angled, 9-ribbed, the seeds 3-cornered, winged at the angles. 

 Shevga, shekta, sonja. 



Cultivated all over India, the pods used as vegetables, the root as 

 horse-radish. From the seeds oil of ben, used by watchmakers, is 

 produced (Sal/our). 



2. M. Concanensis. Like the last, but leaves and panicles 

 larger, leaflets also larger oval, roundish, flowers sweet-scented, 

 petals yellowish, red streaked at the base. Sainjna, mua. 



Wild at various places in the Konkan ; also in Sind and Bajpu- 

 tana .. 



