N. 0. SANTA LACE.E. 1119 



application of it. It is probably one of the many cases of the 

 use of a remedy from a belief in the theory of signatures 

 (Revd. A. Campbell.) 



N. 0. SANTALACEiE. 



11.10. Santaium, album, Linn, h.f.b.l, v. 231 ; 

 Roxb. 148. 



Sans. : — Chandana, srikhanda. 



Vera : — Chandan, sufed-chandan (Hind.) ; Chandan Beng.) 

 Sandal (Dec.) ; Shandanak-kattai, Chaudanamaren (Tam.) ; 

 Gandhapu-chekka (Tel.) ; Chandana mutti (Mai.); Srigandha- 

 damara, Gandhakfvchekke (Kan.) ; Chandan Nasaphiyn, sandaku 

 (Burm.). 



Habitat :— Deccan Peninsula ; from near Poona on the west 

 and Midnapoor on the east, southwards, on dry hills, ascending 

 to ofiOd ft., cultivated elsewhere. 



A small, evergreen, glabrous tree. Bark dark-grey, nearly 

 black, rough with short vertical cracks, inner bark red. Wood 

 hard, very close-grained and oily ; sap wood white, scentless ; 

 heartwood yellowish-brown, strongly scented. Branches slen- 

 der, drooping. Leaves opposite, ovate or ovate-lanceolate ; blade 

 lj-2|in ; petiole Jin. Flowers brownish-purple, in axillary or 

 terminal panicled cymes. Perianth campanulate ; limb of 4 

 valvate triangular segments. Stamens 4, exserted, alternating 

 with 4 rounded, obtuse scales, which may be regarded either as 

 petals or as lobes of the disk. Drupe globose, Jin. diam., black ; 

 endocarp hard. 



Uses : — Sandal-wood is described in Hindu medical works "as 

 bitter, cooling, astringent and useful in biliousness, vomiting, 

 fever, thirst and heat of the body. An emulsion of the wood 

 is used as a cooling application to the skin in erysipelas, prurigo 

 and sudamina." (Hindu Materia Medica.) The wood, ground 

 up with water into a paste, is commonly applied to local inflam- 

 mations, to the temples in fevers, and to skin diseases to allay 

 heat and pruritus. It also acts as a diaphoretic. A yellow 

 volatile oil is distilled from the wood, which has been reported 



