C^ESALPINIA 



DIGYNA 



Tari Pods 



THE DIVI-DIVI PLANT 



Tan and Dye. 



Qualities 

 of Pods. 



Unfavourable 

 Circumstances. 



Injurious 

 Fermentation. 



Anti-ferment 

 Necessary. 



Indian versus 

 American Pods. 



Varying 

 Qualities. 



D.E.P., 

 ii., 9. 

 Tari Pods. 



First 

 Mentioned. 



collection and methods of preservation, etc. " Divi-divi" he affirms, " is 

 classified by dyers and tanners as a true astringent and is associated with 

 oak-galls and myrobalans in affording a maximum amount of tannin 

 with a minimum amount of colouring matter." Crooke (Practical Hand- 

 book Dyeing and Calico Printing) speaks of divi-divi (or libi-divi as it is 

 sometimes called) as being one of the most important astringents in the 

 market. " The best pods," he writes, " are thick and fleshy and of a 

 pale colour. Those which are dark, with black spots and blotches, have 

 probably been gathered in a damp state, or have been subsequently 

 exposed to moisture, which greatly reduces their value. The amount of 

 tannin in divi-divi is greater than in sumach or even myrobalans." These 

 opinions had reference of course more especially to the use of divi-divi 

 dyeing, and accordingly Crooke adds that a great objection to divi- 

 divi lies in the fact that fragments adhere to the textile, which act as 

 resists and produce a mottled condition of the dyed surface. But from 

 the tanner's point of view divi-divi is an uncertain material, more especi- 

 ally if the seeds be contained within the pods. It is greatly influenced 

 by atmospheric conditions, is very subject to injurious fermentation, and 

 imparts weight to leather through the absorption of a gummy substance 

 which is less waterproof than the materials imparted to skins by other 

 tans. In India, according to Thorpe (Madras Mail, 1888), divi-divi 

 cannot be successfully used without the aid of an anti-ferment. 



Hummel (in connection with the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 

 1885-6) was the first of the modern chemists to examine the Indian-grown 

 pods. He reported that they were inferior to the American and West-Indian. 

 Proctor (Leather Indust., 1898, 77) gives a classification of tanning materials 

 and shows divi-divi along with A.CUCIU nmbit-n pods, myrobalans, etc., as a 

 pyrogallol tan. Mr. A. G. Perkins of the Yorkshire College gives the tannin of 

 these pods as ellagitannic acid. Dunstan found an inferiority similar to that 

 reported by Hummel. He had sent to him samples from Chota Nagpur in 

 Bengal, and after examining these expressed the opinion that the pod from 

 other parts of India (Bombay and Madras, etc.) might be found richer in 

 tannin than the Bengal sample. American pods, Dunstan adds, usually con- 

 tain from 30 to 50 per cent, of tanning matter. The Bengal pods were found 

 to contain only from 19-73 to 32-79 per cent. Warburg discusses the culti- 

 vation of divi-divi in German East Africa and furnishes particulars of the 

 imports into Hamburg. [Of. Stewart, Tanning and Currying Leather, in Select. 

 Rec. Oovt. N.-W. Prov., 1870, also revised in Watt's Select. Rec. Govt. Ind., 1889, 

 100-11; Ind. Agri., March 1882; Cooke, Fl. Pres. Bomb., i., 413; Gamble, 

 Man. Ind. Timbs., 268 ; Talbot, List. Trees, etc. (2nd ed.), 141 ; Rec. Bot. Surv. 

 Ind., ii. (Plant Chota Nagpur), 99.] 



C. digyna, Rottl. ; Fl. Br. Ind., ii., 256 ; Hooper, Agri. Ledg., 

 1899, No. 9; 1902, No. 1, 27 ; Dunstan, Imp. Inst. Tech. Repts., 1903, 192-7 ; 

 Prain, Beng. Plants, i., 1903, 449. It is best known by the following 

 names :vakeri, valceri-mal, kunti, amal-kuchi (or kochi), nuni-gatch, 

 gaukungchi, sunletthe (or sun-let-the). 



History. By what appears to be an error, the pods of this prickly climbing 

 shrub have been called tari. teri, or tourhi. The earliest mention of them would 

 seem to be in an article by Mr. John Teil which quotes two letters from Mr. Sconce 

 of Chittagong, dated April 23 and July 7, 1847, addressed to the Secretary of 

 the Agri.-Horticultural Society of India. In the last letter Mr. Sconce gives them 

 their Chittagong name jeri (vi., 246-51 and app., 6-8). It seems probable the 

 true tari is C. snpimn ; in fact tari is almost a generic word for tanning material 

 and is applied very frequently to myrobalans. The plant is met with in Central 

 and Eastern Bengal, Assam, the Circars and Burma, and according to Brandis 

 it occurs also in the Central Provinces (Sambulpur) and in the Western Peninsula. \ 

 Recently it has been experimentally cultivated in many parts of India and 



192 .VV '' ; 



