198 POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



leaf between each. This substance is called Kassu, and is 

 known to be manufactured from the seeds of the Areca 

 Catechu, or Betel nut, one of the palms. 



Another vegetable extract, now very frequently imported 

 under the name of Catechu from Pegu, is prepared from the 

 Butea frondosa, a leguminous tree, with handsome pea- 

 shaped flowers, very common in India; every part of the 

 tree abounds in the astringent principle. 



There are other extracts imported occasionally, for tanners' 

 use, which also receive the common designation of Catechu, 

 but the sources from whence they are derived is unknown. 

 One variety is the Brown Catechu in conical masses, from 

 Siam. The quantity of Cutch and Gambier imported into 

 Great Britain was last year about 1350 tons. 



Myrobalans. Terminalia Chehula. (Nat. Ord. Combre- 

 tacete.) (Plate XIII. fig. 68.) 



The seeds called commercially Myrabolams are the dried 

 fruit of a small tree, very common in many districts of 

 India and other parts of Asia; it is probable they are derived 

 from more than one species of Terminalia. It is much 

 valued both as a dye-stuff and also as a tanning material. 

 The Myrobalans are about an inch in length, about the size 

 and shape of a Spanish olive, with an olive-yellow-coloured 



