676 XLII. LOGANIACEAE 



carrying it out is to sow the seeds singly in long baskets or bamboo tubes 

 and to transplant these bodily during the second rainy season.- The young 

 plants should be raised in free porous soil and should be kept under moderate 

 shade while in the nursery. 



3. Strychnos potatomm, Linn. f. Clearing-nut tree. Vern. Nirmali, 

 Hind.; Nivali, Msbr.; Ckili-gidda, Ksin.; CJiilla, Tel.; Tettancottai, Tarn. 



A small to moderate-sized deciduous (or evergreen?) tree with a fluted 

 stem, opposite coriaceous shining leaves, and lenticillate branchlets swollen at 

 the nodes. Bark thick, blackish, corky, with deep vertical cracks. Unhke 

 S. Nux-vomica this tree is not poisonous ; the seeds are used to clear muddj^ 

 water by rubbing the insides of vessels with them, and the pulp of the fruit 

 is eaten. The wood is hard, close-grained, yellowish grey when seasoned, with 

 conspicuous white markings, used for carts, shafts, agricultural implements, &c. 



The tree is common in many of the dry deciduous forests of the Indian 

 Peninsula. It is a shade-bearer, growing up well under the canopy of deciduous 

 forest. It is drought-resistant, having remained unaffected in the severe 

 drought of 1899-1900 in the Indian Peninsula. It produces root-suckers. 

 The small white fragrant flowers, in axillary cymes, appear from February 

 to May, and the fruits ripen from October to March. The fruit is a sub-globose 

 berry 0-5-0-75 in. in diameter with a firm pericarp, black when ripe, with one 

 or two seeds 0-4-0-5 in. in diameter in a whitish pulp. The seedling, like that 

 of S. Nux-vomica, has a soft whitish delicate taproot. 



2. FAGRAEA, Thunb. 



Glabrous evergreen trees or shrubs, sometimes scandent, often epiphytic : 

 seven known Indian species. 



Fagraea fragrans, Roxb. Vern. Anan, Burm. 



A moderate-sized handsome evergreen tree, usually less than 6 ft. in 

 girth ; bark 0-2-0-5 in. thick, grey to brown, with deep longitudinal cracks. 

 Wood Ught brown, hard, very durable, said to withstand teredo, used for 

 bridge and wharf piles, building, &c. Apart from the value of its timber the 

 tree is useful for afforesting low-lying grassy tracts, and its handsome appear- 

 ance makes it well suited as an ornamental shade tree. 



The tree is very common in indaing (dry dipterocarp) forests of Tenasserim 

 from Moulmein southwards, being particularly abundant in the Heinze basin 

 of South Tenasserim, where there are said to be 200,000 tons available in 

 lengths up to 60 ft.^ It is found in the Andamans, and is common in the 

 Malay Peninsula (vern. Ternbusu), where Mr. A. M. Burn-Murdoch - notes 

 regarding it ; ' The tree is widely distributed and will grow well in open places 

 and even in lalang grass, being seldom met with in big forests. It grows easily 

 from seed and is a fast grower. It is esj^ecially plentiful in parts of the Kuala 

 Pilah district, also in Province Wellesley and Malacca, while there is an almost 

 pure forest of this species on the east coast of Pahang, north of Kuantan 

 near Baloh. There is a large plantation at Kuala Lumpur.' Mr. H. C. Hill " 



1 Ind. Forester, xxv (1899), p. -140. 



- Trees and Timbers of the Malay Peninsula, Part II, p. 3. 



' Reports on Forest Conservancy in the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States, 1900. 



