HEDGES. 209 



G^salpinia Sappan (£.), Sappan tree. 



W. and A. pr. 1, p. 281 ; Grah. Cat. Bom. pi. p. 60 ; Voigt, 

 Hort. Calc. p. 244 ; Eoxb. Cor. pi. 1, t. 16 ; Kheede 

 Hort. Mai. 6, t. 2. Patangha, Cing. ; Chapenga-mara, 

 Can. ; Bukum, Beng. ; Sapanhout, Dutch ; Pao de Sapan, 

 Tori. ; Sowa or Sobok, Japan. 



A large scandent shrub or small tree, armed, indigenous in 

 Ceylon, Malabar, and the Tenasserim provinces, where it is found 

 in isolated patches near the sea. In habit, this tree resembles 

 the Hcematoxylon campechianum (logwood), which is cultivated 

 in Jamaica as a hedge plant, and said by Macfadyen to make 

 excellent fences. Sappan has been planted in the garden fences 

 of the Dekkan and W. Mysore, chiefly for the sake of the wood, 

 which, after ten or twelve years, becomes valuable for its red 

 dye,* and has long been an article of trade. "Bed wood" 

 (Mad. Top. Eep. 1, p. 495, and Jour. Ind. Arch.) It is easily 

 reared from seeds ; but when introduced into a dry climate, it 

 requires watering during the hot season. 



Agave Americana (L.), Great American Aloe. 



A. vivipara, Buch. Jour. i. p. 36; A. Cantala, Eoxb. PI. Ind. ii. 

 p. 167 ; Grah. Cat. Bom. pi. p. 222. Fourcroya Cantala, 

 Yoigt. Hort. Calc. p. 597. Aloe Americana, Eumph. 5, t. 94. 

 Bilati ananas, i.e., English pine-apple. Kantala, Sans. ; 

 Seubbara, Aral. 



The Agavese are all natives of tropical America. This stately 

 aloe-looking species was early taken eastward, and is now dis- 

 persed along the coasts of Africa and the shores of Southern 

 Europe. The American Agave has also been imported from 

 Holland to the Cape of Good Hope. (Thunberg's Travels, i. 283.) 

 It is now so long established in many parts of India, as to form 

 a striking feature in its scenery, and, as has been remarked, 

 " standB isolated in the midst of dreary solitude, and imparts to 

 the tropical landscape a peculiarly melancholy character." 



* The process of dyeing cotton cloth, hy dipping it in a decoction of 

 chapenga wood with a little alum, is given by Buch. (four. i. 224). 



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