1 58 Miscellaneous . 



Shan States, and stated by him, as our commissioner at the time in- 

 formed the writer, to be the production of the Pa-douk, the same 

 tree as the one in Maulmain thus denominated by the Burmans. 

 Several years before I had directed attention to this tree as pro- 

 ducing an astringent gum resembling gum kino, but the medical 

 officer to whom I submitted specimens of the gum said it was " a 

 kind of dragon's blood ;" but after it was known that the gum of 

 the Pa-douk had been sold in London for the veritable gum kino, 

 another medical gentleman tried in his practice the exudation of the 

 tree in his compound in the place of the gum kino in his stores, and 

 reported the effects the same, that their medical virtues were alike. 



The next inquiry that arises is for the genus and species of the 

 Pa-douk. When I first came to the coast, all the English residents 

 of my acquaintance called it " Burman Senna," and the surgeon of 

 the station told me that he believed it was a species of senna. The 

 Rev. H. Malcom, D.D., President of Georgetown College, Ken- 

 tucky, who came out to India a dozen years ago in order to go back 

 again and write a book, has stereotyped in his travels, — " Pa-douk, 

 or Mahogany (^Swietenia Mahogdni), is plentiful in the upper pro- 

 vinces, especially round Ava, found occasionally in Pegu." In a 

 native Pali dictionary, found in the Burmese monasteries, Pa-douk 

 stands as the definition of Pe-td-thd-ld, and the corresponding San- 

 scrit word in Wilson's Dictionary is defined Pentaptera ; but the 

 Pa-douk does not belong to that genus. In Piddington's Index 

 however Peetshala stands as the Hindee name, and in Voigt's Cata- 

 logue Peet-sal as the Bengalee name of Pterocarpus marsupium ; 

 and this brings us nearer the truth, for Pa-douk is a name common 

 to two different species of Pterocarpus^ but which look so much 

 alike that they are usually regarded as one species. Undoubtedly 

 one species is P. Indicus, and the other I presume is the one named 

 by Wight P. Wallichii, but which was marked in Wallich's (Cata- 

 logue P. Dalbergioidesy from which it differs in no well-marked 

 character excepting that the racemes are axillary and simple, while 

 in the latter they are terminal and " much-branched." Wight says of 

 P, Wallichii in his Prodromus, "stamens all united or split down 

 on the upper side only ;" so they are sometimes in our tree. In the 

 figure that he gives in his Illustrations they are represented as dia- 

 delphous, nine and one, and so they are seen occasionally in our 

 tree ; but the more common form is that of being split down the 

 middle into two equal parts, of five each, as in P. Dalbergioides. 

 The wood too resembles it. " Not unlike mahogany, but rather 

 redder, heavier and coarser in the grain." It is often called " red 

 wood" at Maulmain; and from the colour of the wood, some of the 

 natives distinguish the species " red Pa-douk," being P, Dalber- 

 gioides, and " white Pa-douk," P. Indicus. 



Both these trees produce an astringent gum, which has been ex- 

 ported for gum kino; or whether it was a mixture of both it is not 

 possible to say. Probably the latter, as the native collectors would 

 not probably make any distinction. Possibly it is the production of 

 neither. It may be that P. marsupium is found in the Shan States, 

 for it grows I believe in Assam ; and the man that did not distin- 



