PONGAMIA GLABRA. (Nat. order Leguminosie.) 



PONGAMIA. Vent. — GEN. CHAR. Calyx truncate. Standard orbicular, with inflexed auricles at the base ; keel slightly incurred, 

 olitNse. Upper stamen free at the base, connate with the others iu a tube in the middle ; anthers uniform. Ovary nearly sessile, witb 2 ovules ; style 

 incurved, stigma small, terminal. Pod broadly and obliquely oblong or slightly falcate, thick but flat, 1-seeded, indehiscent, the sutures obtuse, without 

 wings. Seed reniform. Tree, leaves pinnate, without stipella:. Flowers in axillary racemes. Bracts very deciduous ; bracteoles minute or none. — 

 Galedupa, Lam. 



-PONGAMIA GLABRA. (Vent.) A middling sized tree, glabrous except a very slight pubescence on the inflorescence. 

 Leaflets 5 or 7, ovate, shortly and obtusely acuminate, usually broad, about 3 inches long, on a rather long petiole, but variable in 

 size. Racemes sometimes panicled, about 3-5 inches long. Flowers in pairs, the pedicels 2 to 4 lines long. Standard about £ inch 

 diameter, lower petals shorter. Pod usually 1| to 2 inches long, and about 1 inch broad, sessile or nearly so, often somewhat falcate 

 or with a very short incurved point. Benth. Syn. Dalb. 117. 



This tree is most abundant throughout South India in the plains, also in Bengal, Bombay and Ceylon, generally on the banks of 

 streams or near water ; it is called Tonga in Tamil ; Kanigd in Teligu, Karunj in Bombay, Magool Karanda in Ceylon ; the wood is light, tough 

 and fibrous, coarse and even grained, of light yellowish brown color, not easily worked nor giving a smooth surface ; it is improvd in strength and 

 color by being seasoned in water ; a, cubic foot unseasoned weighs 48 to 55 lbs., and 40 lbs. when seasoned, and its specific gravity is - 640 j it is 

 used for a variety of purposes, and the solid Wheels of the wodar carts are of ten made of it. An oil is expressed from the seed, which is used by 

 the natives for lamps, and it is an excellent cure for itch and mange ; the tree generally sheds its leaves at the end of the cold season ; its /lowers 

 which are a mixture qfvjhite and purple are produced in the hot season, and its seed ripens towards the end of the year. Cattle are very fond of 

 the leaves, boughs stuck into the ground root readily, and grass and almost everything else grow well under its shade. 



It 



