154 JOURNAL, BOMB A Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol IX. 



cordage, notwithstanding the reticulate nature of its fibres ; yet I can 

 safely recommend it to the serious consideration of our indigenous 

 paper-manufacturers as worthy of trial in the manufacture of coarse 

 paper. I am all the more strengthened to make this remark, inasmuch 

 as the plant is a very quick grower. Not only are seedlings said to be 

 quick-growers, so quick as to bear flower and fruit within a year, but 

 they are also easily propagated. Dr. Hamilton says that the tree is 

 of most rapid growth, coming into flower within a few months after the 

 seed has been sown, and continuing to produce seeds and blossoms 

 afterwards throughout the year. I have no personal knowledge of this 

 plant being ever raised from seeds in Bombay or in the Thana District, 

 which is the northern part of the Konkan ; but I know this, that the 

 plant takes so kindly to the soil, especially where there is plenty of 

 water, as to give me the impression that it is easier to propagate it by 

 cuttings than by sowing its seed. A branch, full two inches thick in 

 diameter, if put into ground in the early part of the monsoon, which 

 generally begins in Thana in the first week of June, by April following 

 the cutting gives substantial fruit. I have Firminger's authority to say 

 that even the seedling is of exceedingly rapid growth. He recom- 

 mends the seed to be sown in June and July. 



As regards the timber of this tree, Dr. Hamilton notes that it gives out 

 a blue colour in spirit and water, which, by transmitted light, appears of 

 a golden yellow ; the blue is destroyed by acids which leave the tincture 

 or decoction of a bright yellow, but is restored by the addition of an alkali. 



Next, as regards the height of the tree, it is variously given. 

 Brandis says it is twenty feet. The trunk, he says, is straight ; its 

 girth from four to five feet, and there are a few large divergent branches. 

 Kurz reckons the height as from thirty to forty feet, which is about the 

 correct estimate I think. The height of the clear stem, according to 

 Kurz, is from ten to twenty feet, and its girth from three to four feet. 

 I may observe, however, that both in Bombay and Thana, the tree very 

 seldom shows so much height in a clear stem. It is often irregular in 

 appearance ; in some places markedly so. Dalzell and Gibson call it a 

 small tree. Drury, again, is nearer the known height. He says that 

 the tree is from thirty to thirty-five feet high. 



There are differences of opinion regarding the nature of the stipules* 

 As a rule, they are, as stated above, absent. Hooker, Kurz* Baillon and 



