BAMBOOS 



THE WHITE MANGROVE 



Medicine. 



Timber. 



D.E.P., 

 i., 360-1. 



White 

 Mangrove. 



Tanning. 



Timber. 



Portuguese from America. The kermerick is not only mentioned in the Memoirs 

 of Baber (Leyden and Erskine, transl., 325), of a date approximately 1519 A.D., or 

 about 27 years after the discovery of America, but it is described in such terms 

 as to leave no doubt whatever as to its identity. Baber gives his account of 

 this fruit in a list of " Vegetable Products Peculiar to Hindustan," and makes 

 no sort of suggestion of its having been only recently introduced. These facts, 

 when taken in conjunction with the existence of a Sanskrit name, may be regarded 

 as throwing grave doubts on the supposed American origin of the karmaranga. The 

 fruits of the MtiHmbi ripen about the middle of summer and are used in pickles and 

 curries. The flowers also are sometimes preserved. Of the Cat-ttinboin, the 

 leaves, roots and fruits, having antiscorbutic properties, are used as cooling 

 MEDICINES. The fruits ripen about January, and when stewed are very palat- 

 able. The Natives sometimes eat them raw. When unripe they are astringent 

 and are used as an acid in dyeing, or to remove iron-mould, owing to their 

 containing much potassium-oxalate. The TIMBER is said to be employed in the 

 Sundribans for building purposes and for furniture. [Cf. Linschoten, Voy. E. 

 Ind. (ed. Hakl. Soc.), ii., 33 ; Acosta in Clusius, Hist. Exot. PI., 1605, 286 ; Jacobus 

 Bontius in Piso, Ind. Utri re Nat. et Med., vi., 102 ; Rheede, Hort.Mal., iii., tt. 43-4 ; 

 Buchanan-Hamilton, Stat. Ace. Dinaj., 162; Taylor, Topog. Stat. Dacca, 50; 

 Moodeen Sheriff, Mat. Med. Mad., 75-6 ; etc., etc.] 



AVICENNIA OFFICINALIS, Linn.; Fl Br. Ind., iv., 604; 

 Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 546 ; Pharmacog. Ind., iii., 82 ; VERBENACE^E. 

 The White Mangrove, bina (bani), mada, venkandan, Jcarungandan, tivar, 

 oepata, thame, lameb, etc., etc. A small tree or shrub of the salt marshes 

 and tidal forests of India and Burma ; found also in the Andaman and 

 Nicobar Islands and the Malaya. 



The BARK of this tree is astringent and used by tanners (Agri. Ledg., 1902, No. 

 17, 48). The ashes of the wood are used to wash cloth. The green fruit mixed 

 with butter and boiled is made into a plaster for softening and maturing humours 

 and to heal smallpox ulceration. The TIMBER is brittle and employed only for 

 firewood ; it is reported as used in the Andamans in the construction of 

 oil-mills, etc. 



D.E.P. 

 i., 335-7, 

 370 94, 

 437 ; ii., 

 252-3 ; iii., 

 71 80, 498 ; 

 v., 225, 675 : 

 vi., pt. i., 

 351. 

 Bamboos. 



Industrial 

 Classification. 



B 



BAMBOOS (the Bambusese of botanists); Fl. Br. Ind., 

 vh., 375-420 ; S. Kurz, Bamboo and Its Uses, Ind. For., 1876, i., 219-69, 

 335-62 ; Gamble, Bamboos of Brit. Ind., Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. Calc., 

 1896, vii. ; also Man. Ind. Timbs., 1902, 746-57 ; Hoey, Monog. Trade and 

 Manuf. N. Ind., 1880, 67 ; Brandis, Biological Notes on Ind. Bamboos, 

 Ind. For., 1899, xxv., 1-25 ; Remarks on Structure of Bamboo Leaves, Trans. 

 Linn. Soc., 1907, vii., 69-92 ; also Ind. Trees, 1906, 664-85 ; Freeman- 

 Mitford, Bamboo Garden, 1896. To economise space these works will not 

 again be cited, though freely consulted in preparing the review that follows 

 of the various economic bamboos of India ; GRAMINE^E. 



It is proposed to treat the Bamboos from the practical rather 

 than the scientific standpoint, and accordingly to deal with them collec- 

 tively instead of under their separate genera. But many of the purposes 

 for which bamboos are utilised are met also by the Canes (Calamus, p. 202), 

 by the Eeeds, and other basket and wicker-work materials (Baskets, p. 115). 

 The Canes proper are climbing palms, and the Reeds are species of grasses 

 which, from the industrial point of view, are very nearly identical with 

 the smaller bamboos. The Reeds proper are the species of Phi-ai/mites. 

 as also certain species of Artindinaria. Antlropoffon, Ai-nmlo, 

 IfU'/itn'inmn, Saccliitrutn and Tjipha. But many basket-materials 

 are not grasses, and the link is thus given that carries the attempt 



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