N. O. URTICAOEiE. 1205 



Habitat :— Deccan Peninsula, native of the forests of the 

 Western ghats ; cultivated throughout the hotter parts of India. 



A large, ever-green, glabrous tree, attaining 60ft. Wood 

 moderately hard ; sapwood pale, heart-wood bright-yellow, 

 darkening on exposure ; very durable, seasons well. Bark thick, 

 blackish, deeply cleft when old, yielding a gum. The juice is 

 used as bird lime. Youngest shoots and midrib with soft, 

 stiff hairs (Brandis.) Leaves 4-8 in., thickly coriaceous, dark- 

 green, elliptic-oblong or ovate, acuminate, entire or 3-lobed ; 

 base acute, rather rough beneath ; leaves of young plants often 

 lobed ; nerves 7-8 pair. Petiole i-lin., rather slender ; stipules 

 large spathaceous, lanceolate, glabrous. Flower-heads embraced 

 by spathaceous deciduous stipular sheaths, axillary and terminal, 

 pften 2-nate. Peduncles fin., at first slender. Male cylindric, 

 2-6in., by l-2in., diam ; bractiolesO sepals 2, oblong or spathu- 

 late ; tips pubescent. Fruit 12-30 by 6-12in., in young trees on 

 large branches in old trees hanging on short stalks from 

 the main stem or branches through conical protruberance of 

 the rind, oblong or cylindric, tubercled, i.e., with flattish, 

 rarely acute, tips of the pyramidal antho-carps. Seeds oily, 

 numerous, an inch long, oblong. Testa thin, coriaceous, 

 surrounded by a luxious pulp, which latter forms the staple 

 food of the natives. Pulp is eaten cooked or uncooked when 

 ripe, and preserved dry in flat pan-cakes. Seeds eaten boiled 

 or roasted. 



Uses : — The juice of the plant is applied externally to glan- 

 dular swellings and abscesses to promote suppuration. The 

 tublers, if worn on the waist, are said to cure hydrocele. The 

 young leaves are used in skin diseases, and the root is used 

 internally in diarrhoea. 



The leaves considered an antidote to snake-poison. (T. N. 

 Mukerji.) The unripe fruit is astringent, the ripe laxative, but 

 rather difficult to digest, although very nutritious. 



The dye stufi jackwood contains, in addition to morin, cyanomaclurin C 1S 

 Hj 2 6 or C l8 H 16 7 . It possesses the characteristic property that its 

 alkaline solution on warming develops a deep indigo blue colouration. It 

 was noticed that in certain important respects its properties were similar to 

 those of catechin ; the colourless crystalline constituent of gambier catechu, 



