Naturalisation in Extra-Tropical Countries. 505 



Shorea robusta, Gaertner. 



The Sal-tree. India, up to about 3,000 feet. It attains as a 

 maximum a height of 150 feet and a stem-girth of 25 feet. Foliage 

 evergreen ; leaves annual. One of the most famed of Indian 

 timber-trees ; likes a rather humid clime (about 70 inches rain); 

 thrives in annual extremes of temperature from the freezing point to 

 about 100 F. Drs. Stewart and Brandis found it on sandstone, con- 

 glomerate, gravelly and shingly ground, where loose water-trans- 

 mitting soils are mixed with a large portion of vegetable mould. The 

 climatic conditions within a Sal-area may be expressed as mean 

 annual rainfall, 40 to 100 inches ; mean temperature, in the cool 

 season 55 to 77, in the hot season 77 to 85 F. The heart-wood 

 is dark-brown, coarse-grained, hard, very heavy, strong, tough, with 

 fibrous cross-structure and fibres interlaced. It requires careful 

 seasoning, otherwise it will rend and warp. For building, river- 

 boats and railway-sleepers it is the most important timber of North- 

 India. It exudes a pale aromatic, dammar-like resin. The Tussa- 

 si Ik worm derives food from this tree. 



Shorea Talura, Roxburgh. (8. laccifera, Heyne.) 



India, abounding in Mysore, where South-European fruits prosper. 

 On this tree also the Lac-insect lives. It furnishes a peculiar 

 dammar. 



Sicana odorifera, Naudin. 



From Mexico to Southern Brazil, indigenous or cultivated. A 

 superb gourd, the fruit attaining a length of 1^ feet. Known already 

 to Piso and Marcgraf under the name of Curuba. 



Silene Cucubalus, Wibel. (8. inflata, Smith. ) 



The Quintcherich. Europe, temperate and colder Asia, North- 

 Africa. A perennial herb, the young shoots of which afford 

 a palatable and wholesome kitchen-vegetable, used like spinage 

 (Jaeger, Scholtz], Must be prevented however from straying as weed 

 into culture. 



Sirnaba Cedron, Planchon. 



Central- America. As this small tree extends to some plateaux 

 of the Andes, it could doubtless be cultivated without protection in 

 mild climatic regions, also beyond the tropics. The seeds have been 

 brought prominently under notice by Drs. Cheyne, Cespedes, and 

 Barrington, as well as Messrs. Jamord and Purdie as a remedy 

 against snake-poison. Professors Restrepo and Dujardin-Beaumetz 

 have drawn as an antipyretic and tonic the powerful Simabin or 

 Cedrin into medicinal use. 



