N. O. EUPHOitBIACEiE. 1135 



Habitat : — Throughout the hotter parts of India, along the 

 foot of the Himalaya from Kashmir to Mishmi. 



A deciduous tree, 50-60ft., with thorns on the back of young 

 stems. Bark Jin. thick, grey or brown, rough with longitudinal 

 cracks and exfoliating in long irregular plates. Wood moderately 

 hard to hard, grey to olive-brown, close-grained ; seasons well. 



Leaves coriaceous, elliptic-oblong, ovate or obovate, acute, 

 obtuse or rounded at the apex, the base usually rounded, 

 bright-green and glabrous on the upper surface and turning 

 pinkish-purple before falling, often finely tomentose beneath ; 

 main lateral nerves 15-25 pairs, straight, prominent, finely 

 reticulate between ; petioles J-Jin. long, stipules ovate-lanceo- 

 late, unequal at the base, deciduous. Flowers dioecious, 

 greenish-yellow, sessile or shortly pedicelled, arranged in 

 dense axillary clusters or in long axillary or terminal panicled 

 spikes exceeding the leaves ; bracts small, obtuse, villous 

 Calyx iin. in diam. ; lobes fleshy, spreading, triangular-ovate, 

 acute, glabrous and often tinged with red ; tube pubescent. 

 Petals of males obovate, pectinate ; of the females subspathulate. 

 Disk of male flower thick and pulpy ; of the female truncate, 

 enclosing the ovary. Drupe fleshy, subglobose, Jin. in diam., 

 seated on the persistent hardly enlarged calyx, flesh-coloured 

 or purplish-black when quite ripe. (Duthie.) 



Uses : —The bark is a strong astringent and is used in 



Western India as a lithontriptic (Dymock). Used as a liniment 



with gingelly oil in rheumatism (Surg.-Major Ratton in Watt's 



Dictionary). Root astringent (J. J. Wood's Plants of Chutia 



Nagpur, p. 135). 



Chemical composition.— The bark afforded 41*7 per cent, of water extract, 

 containing 39'9 parts of tannic acid. The tannic acid gave a greyish-green 

 precipitate with plumbic acetate, and a blue-black colour with ferric 

 chloride. The air-dried bark left 7*35 per cent, of ash on incineration. 

 Although this is one of the most astringent barks in India, it does not appear 

 to be known to, or used by, Europeans in the arts. 



1126. B. montana, Willd., h.f.b.i. v. 269, Roxb. 

 705. 



Vern. :— Kargnalia, khaja, geia, kusi (II.) ; Gondni (Saharan- 

 pur) ; Geio (Nepal) ; Kaisho (Ass.) ; Kurgnulia (Kumaon) ; 



