BASSIA ELLIPTICA. (Nat. ord. Sapotacese.) 



For Gen. Char, see under " Baasia latifolia. " 



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JjASSIA ELLIPTICA. (Dalzell.) A very large tree, bark rusty, leaves fascicled at the ends of the branches, somewhat 

 coriaceous dark green above, paler beneath, entire long petioled oblong obovate tapering at the base, terminated in a sudden and blunt 

 acumination, venation indistinct above but marked beneath, peduncles axillary 1-3, 3-4 times longer than the petiole, in fruit erect ; 

 calyx 6-parted, in 2 series, 3 outer divisions broader and larger than the 3 inner and more leathery ; corol 5-6 cleft contorted in aestiva- 

 tion deciduous, hairy on the inside of the tube. at the insertion of the stamens; stamens 12-18, inserted on the inside of the tube 

 shorter than the corol sessile extvorse 2 celled, alternate in 2 rows but the apex of all the anthers reach the same level ; ovary tomen- 

 tose 6 celled, cells 1 ovuled, ovules attached to a basal placenta, style nearly three times as long as the ovary, stigma simple, fruit oblong, 

 size of a large almond 1 seeded by abortion, seed erect, exalbuminous cotyledons fleshy. Dak. in Hook. Journ. of Bot. iii. p. 36 ; — 

 Isonandra acuminata. Cleghorn in Memorandum on the Pauckotee or Indian gutla tree. 



A gigantic tree, 100 feet high and up to 12 feet in girth, common in all the moist sholas of the Western Ghats of the Mairas Presidency, 

 up to 3,500 or 4.000 feet, and in similar localities on the Bombay Ghats ; the timber is hard and not unlike Hal in its grain, and lakes a good, polish. 

 It is much employed by planters for building purposes,and might be used for furniture. A sort of gutta exudes from the trunk, vjhich is known 

 as p&la gum or Indian gutta percha. It is not oj any value compared with the true gutta percha, but might be used as a birdlime or a cement, and 

 perhaps for encasing telegraph wires. The tree is known by the native names of Paid and Paucholee. 



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