58 SISSOA. 
the Panjab. It is given by Hooker as occurring up to 1,000 feet in Sikkim, and it occurs up to 3,000 — 
4,000 feet in the North-West Himalaya and in Deluchistan. The only suggestion of its being possibly 
wild in S. India is а note by Hohenacker on a sheet in the Herb. De Candolle, where it is mentioned 
as occurring in the forests of Coorg, where the inhabitants know it as Bihti Mara. 
Mr. Bentham states that the ovules may be 2—4, but the writer has never met with fewer than 
4 ovules and 5—6 are quite common numbers, Roxburgh says the pod is 3-seeded, by which he 
must mean that pods occur which are 3-seeded, but not pods with more than 3 seeds.* Bentham also 
admits the existence of 3-seeded pods, but states that there may be only one seed. The writer 
has never met with a pod containing more than 2 seeds, and the proportion of l-seeded to 2-seeded 
pods is in reality as 85: 15. Тһе leaves of this species in Rajputana and іп Beluchistan remain 
long, sometimes apparently persistently, pubescent: those of the submontane forests and of trees planted 
in Eastern and Southern India early become glabrous. 
The form of leaf with narrow leaflets is only known in cultivated trees, and has only been met 
with in the Panjab and in the Upper Gangetic plain; it appears to be strictly confined to tho 
adventitious shcots that appear after pollarding. The terminal flower of a raceme often has three in 
placo of the normal two basal bracts. 
This species is often spoken of as nearly alliod to D. latifolia. That both are Dalbergias and both are 
familiar timber-trees is true: beyonl those fundamental characters there is, however, no obvious affinity 
between the two. The petals are very different, for in D. Sissoo neither the wings пог the keel. 
petals are auriculate, іп D. Ltifolia both are; in D. 8іззо the style is very short and stout; in 
D. latifolia it is long and slender. In D. Sissoo the pod is narrow-ligulate, quite unlike that of 
D. latifolia and its allies, and most like that met with in the two otherwise very different species— . 
D. sericea and D. sacerdotun. 
Buchanan-Hamilton (Martins History), writing of this Species, says if is not indigenous in 
Purnea, away from the foothills, though it is extensively planted. He points out that it is a very 
different tree from the Sisu of South India, which is also a Dalbergia, and observes that the name 
Sisu in Purnea is likewise given to Stiliing‘a sebifera. 
Prare 34, Dalbergia Sissoo Roxb—1, Branch showing both flower and fruit (the 
latter а year old) from а tree cultivated in Bengal, n.s; 2, leaf, full grown, from a ° 
Merwara specimen, n. s,; 3, leaf, young, of the narrow-leafed form, from the Panjab, 
». 8.; 4, calyx, laid open X 4; 5, standard x 4; 6, wings X 4; 7, keel-petals x 4; 
8, staminalsheath X 4; 9, ovaries, one entire, one laid open X 4; 10, ovule, greatly 
enlarged; 11, seed, т. s; 12, bud, showing enveloping bracteoles x 6, 
* Mr. Baker describes the pod of D. Sissoo as having sometimes 4 seeds and 
: í : : as not bei і і 
the seed: possibly this description applies to the fruit of some other species. eig veined opposite 
