20 BULLETIN" 1057, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



On examination of fruiting specimens it appeared that the species 

 said to be Taraktogenos kurzii differed somewhat from the upper 

 Chindwin species. The fruits were distinctly ridged, especially to- 

 ward the apex, a character absent in the specimens from Burma; 

 they were also darker in color. Unfortunately, no flowering trees 

 could be found, and some of the trees had semimature fruits but no 

 ripe fruits whatever. It was again stated that July and August 

 were the fruiting season. As is not the case in Upper Burma, the 

 trees here (which may be Taraktogenos kurzii, but concerning which 

 there still remains some doubt, owing to the characters mentioned 

 above and the absence of flowers) grew as scattered individuals save 

 in one locality, where they covered an area of perhaps half an acre 

 and formed about 80 per cent of the tree growth. The plant asso- • 

 ciates of this doubtfully determined Taraktogenos kurzii in the 

 Dibru forest are mainly Artocarpus chaplasha, a valuable timber tree 

 which seeds in August, Dillenia indica, Cinnamomum sp., Ptero- 

 spermum acerifolium, Myristica sp., Ficus sp., Ficus elastica, Elaeo- 

 carpus sp., aroids, a species of Calamus which climbs over the trees, 

 etc. The tree here is. known as lemtam, and the Burmese vernacular 

 name kalaw is unknown in Assam. Gynocardia odorata, which is 

 also known as lemtam in Assam, is found in company with this 

 species of Taraktogenos in the Dibru forest, but it is rather scarce. 

 No seeds were obtained of the supposed Taraktogenos kurzii of the 

 Assam Dibru forest, but seedlings from this forest, which arrived in 

 good condition in Hawaii, were left in charge of Dr. H. L. Lyon, 

 collaborator of the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction 

 of the Bureau of Plant Industry. 



Besides occurring in the Dibru forests, Taraktogenos kurzii is said 

 to grow near Bargpathar on the Dhansiri River in the district of 

 Sibsagar, a subdivision of Golaghat ; also at Jamugri in the same sub- 

 division, but on the Doyang River, and all over the district of Mow- 

 gong near Silghat, Assam. Shorea robusta, the famous sal tree of 

 India and Assam, is very common in the Lakhimpur district of north- 

 ern Assam and is an indicator of the absence of Taraktogenos kurzii; 

 wherever the latter occurs the former is absent, and vice versa. 



On the writer's return to Calcutta, he stopped at Chittagong in 

 Lower Bengal, whither he was directed by the manager of Glen & Co., 

 dealers in chaulmoogra oil in Calcutta. Chaulmoogra oil is here 

 manufactured by a Bengal firm, Prasana Kumar Sen. The writer, 

 in company with Dr. E. Muir, visited Mr. Sen's establishment and 

 examined the seeds from which he obtains chaulmoogra oil. They 

 were indeed those of Taraktogenos kurzii. The extraction of chaul- 

 moogra oil as carried on at Mr. Sen's establishment is a very simple 

 process (PI. XI). The seeds when they arrive from the forests are 



