82 



N. Ord. LEGUMINOS-E. 

 Tribe Dalbergiea. 



Genus Pterocarpus, Linn. 



82. Pterocarpus santalinus,* Linn. /., Suppl. PL, p. 318 



(1781). 



Chandam. Chundana. Red Sanders Wood. Ruby Wood. 



Figures. Woodville, t. 156 (drawn from Koenig's specimen in Herb. 

 Banks) ; Beddome, Fl. Sylvatica, t. 22. 



Description. A small tree about 20 to 25 feet high, the trunks 

 of very old and hollow ones reaching as much as 4 feet in 

 circumference. Leaves alternate, without stipules, on round 

 downy petioles, always trifoliolate ; leaflets articulated, the lower 

 pair alternate or sub-opposite, all on short stalks, broadly oval or 

 sub -orbicular, rounded at both ends and deeply emarginate, 

 2 6 inches long, coriaceous, slightly silky below, veins numer- 

 ous, not prominent. Flowers much as in P. Marsupium, but a 

 little smaller, and the petals less crisped, yellow ; stamens diadel- 

 phous in 2 bundles of 5 each. Pod very like that of the last, 

 but with a less crisped wing and a longer stalk, downy. Seeds 

 2 or solitary. 



Habitat. The Red Sanders Wood is a rare tree found in abund- 

 ance only in a few parts of the Madras Presidency, on low hills, 

 and nowhere else in India. It is readily distinguished from 

 P. Marsupium by its constantly trifoliolate and broader leaf- 

 lets. Plantations have been formed for its cultivation in S. 

 India. 



Eoxb., Fl. Ind., iii, p. 234; Lindl., Fl. Med., p. 257. 



* Sanialinus, referring to its name of red Sandal wood, which all its Indian 

 titles signify, though it bears no relationship to Santalum. 



