SANTALUM RUBRUM 285 



SANTALUM RUBRUM (Red Saunders) 



Official in every edition of the U. S. P. excepting the New 

 York edition of 1830. In the editions of 1820 (and 2d ed. 1828) 

 it was named in the Secondary List, but the Philadelphia edition of 

 1830 promoted it to Primary List. 



Red sandalwood, red sanders, Pterocarpus santalinus, 

 is a small tree native to the southern part of the Indian 

 Peninsula, being found at Canara, Mysore and the 

 Coromandel Coast. It is also found in the Southern 

 Philippines. The wood is obtained chiefly from planta- 

 tions in the forests of the Kurnool Hills and adjacent 

 localities neighboring to Madras. The beginning of 

 the use of this wood for temples and other primitive 

 religious buildings "is lost in antiquity. Marco Polo 

 (518) refers to the fact that sandalwood was imported 

 into China, distinguishing the variety by the word red. 

 Garcia de Orta (480) of Goa, in the 16th century, dis- 

 tinguishes between the fragrant sandalwood of Timor 

 and the inodorous red sandalwood. In this connection 

 it should be remembered that santalum rubrum, or red 

 sanders, has none of the qualities of the santalum 

 album, or fragrant sandalwood. And yet it is recorded 

 that all the languages of India call it by the name red- 

 colored sandalwood. In the Middle Ages, sandalwood 

 was used in Europe for coloring purposes, being quoted 

 in England, 1326 and 1399, at three shillings per pound, 

 and being entered on the accounts of the Monastery of 

 Durham, 1530, along with spices and groceries. It is 

 used in pharmacy as a coloring agent, after the manner 

 in which it was employed in domestic economy in the 

 olden times, for the same purpose. To fail to credit 

 Dymock with his researches on this conspicuous Indian 

 tree, would be a gross oversight. To attempt to im- 

 prove on his descriptions, or to summarize them, would 



