ACACIA 



ARABICA 



Gum Arabic 

 D.E.P., 

 i., 14-7. 



Fibre. 



Medicine. 



D.E.R, 

 i., 17-61 ; 



iv., 188 ; 

 v., 320. 



Commercial 

 Species. 



Generic 

 Properties. 



Fungi and Gum. 

 Fibre Structure. 



Agriculture. 



Hedges. 



Fodder. 

 Acclimatised 



D.E.P., 



i., 17-27. 

 Babul. 



GENERIC PEOPERTIES OF ACACIA 



ABUTILON AVICENN^E, Gcertn. ; FL Br. Ind., i., 326-7 ; 

 MALVACEAE. The Indian Mallow or American Jute. A small bush met 

 with in North- West India, Sind, Kashmir, etc. 



The bark yields a FIBRE, spoken of as superior to Jute (Dodge, Useful Fibre 

 Plants of the World, 35). According to Duthie, the fibre is much valued in Kash- 

 mir. A. iiidieum, Sweet, and A. (iniatifntii . 6. Don two species that from 

 the industrial standpoint cannot be separated from each other. The former 

 is distributed throughout India, in fact the tropics, and the latter is met with 

 chiefly in Western India. They are often spoken of as Country Mallow, kanghi, 

 jhampi, potari, etc., the seeds being balbij. They yield beautiful white bast 

 fibres, and the leaves, roots and seeds are rich in mucilage, hence used as 

 demulcents, emollients, and diuretics, and prescribed in fevers as cooling 

 MEDICINES. 



ACACIA, Willd.; FL Br. Ind., ii., 292-8; Agri. Ledg., 1902, 

 No. 2 ; LEGUMINOS.E. A genus of spinose or prickly climbing shrubs 

 or trees, which constitutes the most characteristic group of plants in 

 the Sub-order MIMOSEJE. There are in all 430 species, of which two- 

 thirds are peculiar to Australia. India possesses only some 22, and 

 these are distributed throughout the plains, two ascending to altitudes 

 of nearly 5,000 feet. [Cf. Prain, Some Additional Leguminosce, Journ. 

 As. Soc., Beng., 1897, Ixvi., 506-11 ; Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 

 291-302 ; Brandis, Ind. Trees. 263-9 ; Duthie, Fl. Upp. Gang. Plain, 

 i., 312-9 ; Cooke, Fl. Pres. Bomb., i., 443-51.] 



It might almost be said that every Indian species is of some economic value. 

 Three are of commercial importance, viz. Acndn arabica, A. Cntechn, and 

 A. Senegal, while the remainder are mainly of local interest. The bushy 

 and arborescent forms, as a rule, afford astringent barks, leaves, or pods, and 

 are appreciated as MEDICINES, as TANS or as DYE AUXILIARIES. Many of them 

 afford useful GUMS that are more or less soluble and edible. Interesting par- 

 ticulars regarding the fungi that appear to be instrumental in the formation 

 of these gums will be found in a paper written by Mr. J. B. Prebble, and 

 published in the Pharmacographia Indica (i., 54455). The barks of some 

 species yield coarse cordage FIBRES. The majority of the trees are of the greatest 

 value to the inhabitants of the tracts where they are at all prevalent, both as 

 sources of TIMBER and FUEL. With regard to the timber, Mr. Gamble observes 

 that the Indian species have sharp prominent medullary rays, which are short 

 in A. CntecHit, fvmiginea, and momenta, but long in the others. As a rule 

 they are not well marked in a radial section, but A. ie,ucovHiw,n and arnbira are 

 exceptional in this respect, the former being beautifully marked. All the species 

 of Adiciu are recognised as of the utmost importance in AGRICULTURE, as for 

 example in the reclamation of waste lands. Indeed, in certain arid regions, they 

 are the chief trees and shrubs met with. And lastly, either as living hedges or as 

 dead thorny fences their spinose property is much appreciated for the protection 

 of cultivated lands, and the leaves beaten from the twigs afford a much- valued 

 FODDER to the cattle of the regions in which they are plentiful. 



A few foreign species have become completely acclimatised in India, such 

 as A. ftenibiitti the Australian White or Silver Wattle ; A. meianoxylon the 

 Australian Black Wattle; A. aeciin-ens the Common Wattle. These are fairly 

 general in the warm temperate tracts of India, more especially in the Nilgiri 

 hills, where they were introduced in 1840. \Cf. Maiden, Gums and Resins of 

 Australia, 172 ; Hooper, Agri. Ledg., 1902, No. 1 ; Imp. Inst. Tech. Bepts., 

 1903, 314-5.] 



It may perhaps suffice to deal very briefly with the so-called unimportant 

 species and to touch mainly on their special features of interest, leaving the 

 above general observations as more or less applicable to them all. 



A. aribica, Willd.; Fl. Br. Ind., ii., 293. This is the Indian 

 Gum Arabic Tree, the babul or kiJcar, babola, gabur, bakar, etc. 

 Dutt (Mai. Med. Hind., 160) gives it the Sanskrit name of vavvula, while 

 babula is a word which according to Rice is only Sanskritised, and 



