DALBERGU SISSOO. (Nat. ord. Leguminosce .) 



Eor Gen. Char, see under " Daluergia latifolia.'' 



I)ALBERGIA SlSSOO. (liosb.) Trunk generally more or less crooked, high and of great thickness, branches numerous 

 spreading, bark on young trees ash-colored and pretty smooth; when old deeply cracked and very thick ; young shoots downy, leaves 

 tdternate pinnate, leallets alternate 3-5 orbicular or obcordate with a short sudden accuaiination, slightly waved on the margin ; when 

 young pubescent, when old glabrous and shining 1 to 3 inches each way, the inferior ones smaller ; petioles round waved, stipules 

 lanceolate caducous ; panicles axillary composed of several short subsecund spikes, flowers subsessile small yellowish white, bracts 

 small caducous, calyx pubescent campanulate, segments oblong, two upper ones obtuse, three lower acute with the centre one longest, corol 

 as in the genus ; stamens nine, all united into a sheath open on the upper side ; style long included in the sheath with the pubescent 

 ovary at the apex on a level with the anthers, stigma large glandular, legume stalked 2-2| inches long linear-lauceolate membranaceous, 

 1-3 seeded, seeds compressed reniform. Roxb. Fl. Ind, iii, 223 ; — W. A. Prod. p. 264. 



A very handsome tree of considerable size, with a trunk up to four feet in diameter ; it is abundant in the plains of Central India, and 

 at the foot of the Himalayas where it is common in river-beds, but ascends to an elevation of 4,500 feet ; it is cultivated and planted as an avenue 

 tree in the Madras Piesidency, and as it grows rapidly in almost any soil, its extended cidtivotion is desirable. The wood is tolerably light and 

 remarkably strong, in color a light greyish brown with darker colored veins, it yields ship builders in Bengal their crooked timber and knees, and is 

 used for gun carriages and mail carts and furniture ; it is called Sissoo, Tali and Shisham inHindooslani, and is universally known by thejormer 

 name. It grows readily fiom seed, flowers at the beginning of the hot weather, and ripens its seed towards the end of the year, and is said to 

 attain maturity in about 30 years. It has a specific gravity of 724, a 6 feet bar 2 inches square, only broke with 1,101 lbs. (in Bakers experiments). 

 White ants seldom if ever attack it : a cubic foot weighs 68 lbs. green, and 48 lbs, dry ; the raspings of the wood are officinal, being considered 

 alterative. 



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