Dalbergia.] XXXI. LEGUMINOS^E. 149 



1104, and may be taken at 950. Old trees are often hollow, and have ring- 

 shakes. When fresh-sawn, the wood has an agreeable smell. Much valued 

 for furniture. Combs and a great variety of ornaments are carved of it. Largely 

 used for yokes, cart-wheels, ploughs and other agricultural implements, knee- 

 timbers of boats, and for construction, also for spokes and fellies of gun-carriage 

 wheels. In Oudh the tree is pollarded for cattle-fodder. 



3. D. Sissoo, Eoxb. Tab. XXIV EL Ind. iii. 223; W. & A. 

 Prodr. 264; Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 25. The Sissoo tree. Sans. Siusapa. 

 Vern. Shisham, sissu, throughout North India ; Shewa, Pushtu ; Tali, 

 sufedar, shin, shia, nelkar, Pb. ; Sissdi, Oudh. 



A large tree with brown heartwood. Young parts pubescent or tomen- 

 tose. Leaflets 3-5, alternate, broad-ovate, acuminate, glabrous when old. 

 Flowers yellowish white, nearly sessile, in unilateral spikes, which are 

 arranged in short axillary panicles; ramifications of inflorescence and 

 calyx pilose. Stamens 9, all united into a sheath, open on the upper 

 side. Ovary on a long stalk, pubescent ; style very short, much shorter 

 than the ovary ; stigma large ; legume linear-lanceolate, generally 2-3- 

 seeded. 



The Sissoo tree is indigenous in the sub- Himalayan tract, and in the outer 

 Himalayan valleys, from the Indus to Assam, ascending to 3000, and at times 

 to 5000 ft. Generally gregarious, mostly on sand or gravel along the banks of 

 rivers or on islands, extending 50-100 miles into the plains. Believed to be indi- 

 genous also in Guzerat, Beluchistan, and Central India. I have never seen it really 

 wild outside the sub-Himalayan belt. Cultivated and often self-sown through- 

 out India ; thrives best on light soil, and requires a considerable amount of 

 moisture. The old leaves turn reddish brown, and begin to fall in December, 

 but continue to be shed up to February, when the young foliage comes out, 

 continuing until April. The full-grown foliage is of a fine clear green colour. 

 Young trees are occasionally leafless for a few weeks ; old trees are hardly ever 

 without leaves. Fl. from March-June, at times with a second flush between 

 July and October ; the seed ripens from November-February, and generally 

 remains long on the tree. 



Under favourable circumstances a large tree, attaining 60 ft. and more, with an 

 erect but not straight or regular trunk 6-12 ft. in girth ; large branches sup- 

 porting a spreading crown. Young shoots downy, brfarious, drooping ; branch- 

 lets cinereous or light brown ; bark of trunk f-1 in. thick, grey or pale brown ; 

 narrow strips exfoliating between more recent obliquely longitudinal shallow 

 fissures, and distant, older deep cracks, which tail off into each other. 



Sap wood small, light - coloured ; heartwood close-grained, brown, mottled 

 with darker veins, in old trees sometimes very dark, nearly black. Medullary 

 rays very fine. Pores large, scanty, uniformly distributed, often joined by narrow 

 concentric bands of whitish tissue. A cub. ft. of seasoned heartwood weighs 

 between 45 and 50 lb. Skinner gives it at 50, but this is too high as an average. 

 The results of Baker's numerous experiments range between 42.68 and 46.25 ; 

 the average of my experiments of 1864 was47.83, and of 1865, 45.83. Instances 

 are, however, recorded of a greater weight (55.5 lb., average of 3 experiments by 

 Major Bussell, Calcutta, 1862). Unseasoned wood weighs 64-70 lb. The trans- 

 verse strength of Sissoo is probably somewhat less than of Blackwood, but con- 

 siderably greater than of Teak, and even greater than of Sal. Skinner gives the 

 value of P. at 870 ; the average of 33 experiments made by me in 1864 was 739, 

 and 51 experiments made in 1865 gave 865. Considering these, and the results 



