152 FLOWEKS AND FRUITS OP TREKS AND SHRUBS. 



scarcity, tlie seeds of the various bamboos afford food to the forest 

 population. Others yield dyeing and tanning extracts, such as the 

 flowers of Woodfordia floribunda (colours leather red and contains 

 2O5 per cent, of tannin), Butea frondosa (yellow and orange colours, 

 much used at the holi festival), Nyctanthes Arhor-tristis (yellow), tun 

 (yellow), &c., and the various myrabolams, and the fruit of Mallotus 

 philippinensis, 8[c. The beleric and chebulic myrabolams, which 

 are most valuable when gathered just before they are ripe, contain 

 30 to 50 per cent, of gallo-tannic acid, producing a soft and porous 

 leather of a bright yellow colour. In 1880 the exports of my- 

 rabolams from Bombay and Kurrachee to London amounted to 

 235,000 cwts., valued at £180,000. In 1888-89 the quantity of 

 myrabolams carried by rail and river in India, exclusive of Burma, 

 exceeded 500,000 maunds, and was worth, in round numbers, 

 12 lakhs of rupees. From a third class of flowers and fruits oil is 

 expressed or distilled, e.g., the flowers of the various scented grasses, 

 of jessamine, &c., the seed of the Bassias, the sal, olive, apricot, &c. 

 The oil of the Bassias and of sdl is obtained by expression after 

 boiling the seed and removing the hulls, the yield of oil being 40 

 to 50 per cent, of the weight of the hulled seed. The oil of all 

 these species congeals at a lower temperature than ghee, which 

 it resembles when solid, and which it is often used to adulterate. 

 Numerous flowers and fruits are used medicinally, e.g., the flowers 

 of Acacia Farnesiana, &c., and the various myrabolams and the 

 fruit of Podophyllum, of Cassia Fistula, Shychnos Nux-vomica, &c. 

 A few kinds of fruit have special uses, such as clearing water 

 ( Stii/olinos potatorum), washing (the soapnut. Acacia concinna), 

 poisoning water for fish (Randia dumetorum), &c. The fruit of the 

 genus Bombax and Calotropis yield fibre which makes a soft stuf- 

 fing for pillows and, in the case of one species, can also be spun. 



