PITHEOOLOBIUM DULOE. (Nat. order Leguminosfe.) 



PlTHECOLOBIUM. Mart.— GEN. CHAR. Calyx campamilate or tubular. Corolla 5-lobed, with a cylindrical tube. Stamens indefinite, 

 usually numerous and long, united at the base in a tube enclosing the ovary. Pod flattened, usually rather thick and much curved, annular or spirally 

 twisted, either opening entirely or on the outer edge in 2 valves, or quite indehiscent, very smooth and often coloured inside or with a thin pulp. Seeds 

 ovate or orbicular ; funicle filiform. Trees or rarely shrubs, unarmed or armed with short straight stipulary thorns. Leaves twice pinnate, usually with 

 a gland on the petiole below the pinnae, and others between or below some or all of the pinnae and leaflets ; leaflets few. Flowers in globular or oblong 

 heads or umbels, or rarely in cylindrical spikes, usually hermaphrodite and white, the stamens rarely red. Cathormium, Hassle. 



This genus only differs from Albizzia in its legume, from Acacia it is at once distinguished by the stamens being united in a tube. The Ameri- 

 can genus Inga differs from Pithecolobium only in its leaves being always simply pinnate. 



PlTHECOLOBIUM DULCE. (Willd.) A good sized tree up to 40 feet high and 6 feet in girth, extreme branches 

 pendulous armed with short straight stipulary thorns, leaves bipinnate, pinnae and leaflets each one pair, leaflets oblong very unequal 

 sided obtuse with a gland between the pinnae and between the pairs of leaflets, petiole shorter than the leaflets ; flowers capitate, heads 

 shortly pedunculate, racemose, the racemes panicled, legumes turgid twisted, seeds glabrous and smooth imbedded in a firm pulp. — 

 Inga dulcis, Willd; — WA. Prod. p. 269. Mimosa dulcis, Eoxb. Fl. Ind. ii. 556. 



This tree is supposed to have been introduced from the Philippine Islands, but it is now most common throughout this Presidency ; it 

 is one of our best coppice fuels and is largely grown for that purpose and is also much used as a hedge plant. A cubic foot of unseasoned 

 wood weighs 50-53 lbs. and when seasoned 40 lbs., and its specif c gravity is - 640, it is hard, coarse grained and brittle, of a reddish brown color, 

 and when sawn emits an unpleasant odour ; it is v.sedjor country carts, packing boxes, and the pannelling of doors. The tree is caVed Kdrkd- 

 pilly in Tamil and is often called the Manilla tamarind by Europeans. 



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