N. 0. VERBENACEjE. 091 



many, on short pedicels and arranged in large terminal much- 

 branched tomentose cymose panicles 1-3 ft. long ; bracts at 

 the forks lanceolate, those beneath the calyx narrower. Calyx 

 (in flower) -§- in. long, broadly campanulate, stellately tomentose ; 

 lobes jo in. long, snbequal, spreading ; the whole calyx ulti- 

 mately enlarging to 1 in. or more and forming a membranous 

 bladder-like covering to the firuit. Corolla white, glabrous, 

 limb i in across ; lobes subequal, seading. Fruit subglobose, 

 \ in. in diarn., somewhat 4-lobed ; pericarp soft, densely clothed 

 with felted stellate hairs. 



Uses : — A plaster of the powdered wood is recommended in 

 hot headaches and for the dispersion of inflammatory sw r ellings ; 

 when taken internally it is said to be beneficial in dyspepsia, 

 with burning of stomach. It also acts as a vermifuge. The 

 ashes of the wood are applied to swollen eyelids and are said to 

 strengthen the sight. The bark is an astringent, and the oil of 

 the nuts promotes the growth of hair and removes itchiness of 

 the skin. The flowers, according to Endlicher, are diuretic, and 

 Gibson states that the seeds possess similar properties (Dymock). 



The wood rubbed down with water into a paste allays the 

 pain and inflammation caused by handling the Burmese black 

 varnish Thitsi (Melanorrhoea usitatissima). It also deserves 

 to be tried as a local application to inflammations arising from 

 the action of the Marking Nut (Ph. Ind.). The oil is extracted 

 from the w r ood in Burma, and is used medicinally as a substitute 

 for linseed oil and as varnish (Mukerji.) The tar is used 

 in the Konkan as an application to prevent maggots breeding 

 in sores on draught cattle (Dymock). 



At a meeting of the Nilgri Natural History Society in 1887, Mr. Larson 

 showed a specimen of a whitish mineral substance found in a teak tree growing 

 in the Government Plantation at jVilambnr. This peculiar secretion is not 

 altogether unknown to officers in the Forest Department, and its composition 

 has on more than one occasion been investigated by chemists. 



The late R. Romanis (Jn. Chem. Soc, 3-11-87) found that alcohol extracts 

 a soft resin from teak wood, but no oil or varnish. On distilling the resin he 

 obtaind a crystalline substance which he also found to be present in consi- 

 derable quantity in the tar resulting from the destructive distillation of 

 teak. The analyses which he has made of the crystals point to the empirical 

 formula C 9 H l0 O ; on oxidation with nitric acid they yield what appears to 

 be a quinone of the formula C 13 H l0 -0 2 . 



