166 



13. Averrhoa Carambola, Linn. — The Carambola of the East Indies is a 



small tree with leaflets which are slightly sensitive. It produces an 

 abundance of prettily shaped five-angled yellow fruits. The fruits 

 are acid, but make an agreeable preserve, and are also used for making 

 pickles and curries ; the juice removes iron-mould from linen, The 

 dried fruit is given in fevers, and is also an antiscorbutic. ( G era- 

 ma cece.) 



14. Baphia nitida, Afz. — Cam Wood has grown here to a height of 



24 feet, and measures 30 inches in circumference at the base. It 

 has papilionaceous flowers, white, with a small orange-yellow blotch 

 near the base of the standard. Some hundred tons of the wood 

 are imported into Great Britain annually from the west coast of 

 Africa, but it is said not to be so easily obtainable at the present time. 

 The logs are about 4 ft. long and a foot in diameter. It is a dyewood 

 yielding a brilliant deep red colour, and is used for the same purposes 

 as Brazil wood. The mordant employed is sulphate of iron ; common 

 English Bandana handkerchiefs are dyed with this material. In 

 Africa the natives colour their bodies with the pounded wood, and 

 make use of the wood also in Fetish ceremonies. ( Legnminosce ) 



Bar Wood is sometimes confused with Cam Wood, but it is a dif- 

 ferent tree, viz., Pterocarpus erinaceus, Poir. 



15. Barringtonia Butontca, Forst. has a remarkable four-angled fruit. 



From the seeds an oil is expressed, used for lamps. They are also 

 mixed with bait to stupify fish. The fruits are employed as fish- 

 ing-floats. (Myrtacece.) 



16. Bassia latifolia, Poxb. — Brandisinhis ' Indian Forest Flora' says of 



the Mahwa tree : — "It attains 40 to 50 feet in height with a short 

 trunk 6 to 7 feet in girth, and numerous spreading branches, form- 

 ing a close shady rounded crown." 



Mr. Lockwood, magistrate and collector in Monghyr, 250 miles 

 north-west of Calcutta, has published a most interesting and in- 

 structive account of this tree. He says : " This tree may be called 

 a fountain yielding food, wine, and oil to the inhabitants of the 

 country where it grows." In appearance it might be mistaken for 

 a mango tree. " But, unlike that of mango trees, which are un- 

 certain in their yield, the Mahwa crop never fails ; for the part 

 eaten is the succulent corolla, which falls in great profusion from 

 the trees in March and April. This season is a great feasting time 

 for the humbler members of creation. Birds, squirrels, and tree- 

 shrews feast among the branches by da} r , whilst the poor villagers 

 c )llect the corollas which fall on the ground on all sides. Nor does 

 the feasting end with the day. At sunset peacocks and jungle- 

 fowl steal out from the surrounding jungle to share the Mahwa 

 with deer and bears, many of which fall victims to the bullets or 

 arrows of the hunters, who sit concealed in the branches overhead. 

 It grows on poor, stony soil, ill-suited to most other trees, or for 

 the plough." 



Mr. Lockwood calculated that in Monghyr, a district of 4,000 

 square miles, there must be a million trees. Each tree yields 2 or 

 3 cwt. of corollas ; so that the total yield of Mahwa flowers cannot 



