252 



The plant is largely grown for decorative purposes and as a hedge 

 plant in the tropics, and forms a most beautiful fence when mixed 

 with Parkinsonia aculeata (Bot. Mag. I.e.). 



The cultivation is easy, grows freely from seeds and flowers nearly 

 the whole year round. 



Caesalpinia Sappan, Linn. Sp. PI. (1753), p. 381. 



A small tree. Prickles small and few. Leaf-rachis \ to 1 ft. long ; 

 leaflets close, sessile, subcoriaceous, \ to f in. long, attached at the 

 lowest corner. Panicles often as long as the leaves, the young 

 branches slightly ferrugineo-pubescent ; bracts large, lanceolate, 

 caducous ; pedicels \ to f in. long. Calyx f in. long, glabrous. Pod 

 3 to 4 in. by 1^ in. ; sub-compressed, polished, with a hard 

 recurved beak at the upper angle, 2 to 4 seeded (Fl. Br. India, 

 ii. p. 255). 



III. — Rheede Hort. Mai. vi. t. 2 {Tsja-Pangam) ; Rumpf, Amb. iv. 

 t. 21 {Lignum Sappan) ; Gaertner, Fruct. Sem. PI. ii. t. 144 ; Lam. 

 Encycl. t. 335 {C. Bresillet) ; Roxb. PI. Corom. i. t. 16 ; Bedd. Fl. 

 Sylv. (Anal. Gen.) t. 13, f. 1 ; Vidal, Fl. For. Filip. t. 420 (pod and 

 parts of fl.), t. 43E (leaf) ; Greshoff, Nutt. Ind. PI. t. 29 ; Brandis, 

 Ind. Trees, p. 246 (pod). 



Vernac. names. — Kayu Spang (Sarawak, Mus. Kew) ; Mai Krak 

 (Korat District, Siam, Beckett) ; Kaya Kedrang (Malacca, Mus. Kew). 

 — Sappan Wood ; Sampfen Wood ; Bakam Wood ; Brazilian 

 Wood ; Redwood. 



The wood yields a red dye, and it is exported in billets, chiefly 

 from Siam and the Philippines. It is not now, apparently, of special 

 importance. The imports into this country are quoted since 1888 in 

 the Customs Returns, under Dyewoods unenumerated, of which the 

 total quantity from Foreign Countries and British Possessions {e.g. 

 4210 tons, value £35,692) in 1909 (Trade of the United Kingdom, i. 

 1910, p. 107) was less than "Logwood" {q.v.). The Philippine 

 production appears to go largely if not entirely to China — the whole 

 export from Iloilo (51,842 piculs=3240 tons, value £8997) in 1904 

 all went to Hong Kong (Cons. Rep. Ann. No. 3512, 1905, p. 28). It 

 weighs 46 to 61 lbs. per cubic ft. (Gamble, Man. Ind. Timb. p. 267), 

 and the colouring matter is readily soluble in hot water. One of the 

 trees being propagated for distribution by the Department of Agri- 

 culture in S. Nigeria. 



Ref. — " Caesalpinia Sappan" in Diet, Econ. Prod. India, Watt, ii. 



1889, pp. 10-12. " Caesalpinia Sappan" in Nuttige Indische 



Planten, Greshoff , pp. 121-124 (J. H. De Bussy, Amsterdam, 1894). ^ 



" Sappanholz," in Die Rohstoffe des Pflanzenreiches, Wiesner, ii. 



pp. 934-935 (Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig, 1903). " Sappan 



Wood," in Timbers of Commerce, Stone, pp. 70-71 (W. Rider & Son, 



Ltd., London, 1904). " Caesalpinia Sappan" in Comm. Prod. 



India, Watt, pp. 194-196. 



POINCIANA, Tourn. 



Poinciana regia, Boj. ex Hook. /. Bot. Mag. t. 2884. 



A tree 30 to 40 ft. high, trunk up to 3 ft. in diameter, with grey, 

 smooth bark, unbranched below and with a wide crown. Leaves 

 2 ft. long, with 11-18 pairs of pinnae ; petioles swollen at the base. 

 Flowers bright scarlet marked with yellow, in lax, terminal or axillary 

 racemes about 1 ft. long. Petals neardy orbicular, patent-reflexed. 



