SEMECARPUS ANACARDIXJM. (Nat. order Anacardiacese.) 



SeMECARPUS, Linn, fil,— GEN. CHAR. Flowers polygamous. Calyx small, 5 lobed. Petals 5, imbricate in the bud. Disk orbicular, 

 slightly lobed or creriate. Stamens 5, inserted round the disk. Ovary 1 celled, with 3 styles, and somewhat club-shaped stigmas ; ovules suspended from 

 the top of the cavity. Drupe or nut reniform, seated on the much- enlarged, thick, succulent, fleshy, cupular or turbinate base of the calyx, (hypocarp) 

 pericarp thick, hard, filled with resinous cells. Seed pendulous, the testa coriaceous, somewhat fleshy inside, embryo thick, with plaDO-convex cotyledons 

 and a very short superior radicle: Trees, leaves alternate ; flowers small, in terminal or lateral panicles. 



SeMECAKPUS ANACARDIUM. (Linn.) A large tree bearing male and hermathrodite flowers on different individuals, 

 trunk pretty straight, bark scabrous, branches numerous spreading, leaves about the apex of the branches oblong to obovate rounded at 

 the apes entire, pretty smooth but harsh, whitish underneath 6-18 inches long by 4-8 broad, pinnate veins and veinlets conspicuous 

 on both sides, petioles \ to 2 inches long, panicles terminal very large composed of many simple spikes, those of the male tree more 

 slender but as large or larger, flowers numerous small dull yellow, as in the generic character, the males smaller with a small rudiment 

 of an ovary, bypocarp about the size of the drupe yellow when ripe. Roxb- Fl. Ind. ii. p. 83. 



This is the marking-nut tree, called in Hindustani Bhildma, in Teligu Jiri, and Bibu in Bombay ; it is common in subalpine jungles 

 throughout this Presidency and in Bengal and Bombay ; its wood is soft and of no value ; the fruit contains the black corrosive resinous juice generally 

 used in this country for marking linen and also in use medicinally with the natives ; the green fruit well pounded makes good bird-lime, the fleshy 

 receptacle beloiv the nut is sometimes roasted and eaten, and the kernels are also occasionally eaten ; the marking ink is improved in color and prevented 

 from running by the mixture of a little quicklime water. A brown colored tasteless gum exudes from the bark. 



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