182 
ACACIA. CATECHU. 
where the Terra Japonica is manufactured, the price of the Areca 
nut exceeds that of Catechu ; but he thinks it probable, that where 
this nut is in great plenty, they may perhaps join some of the fruit 
in making the extract, to answer a double purpose ; for the most 
general use made of both in the country, is to chew them as 
Europeans do tobacco. Herbert de Jager asserts that Catechu is not 
extracted from one tree only, but from almost all the species of 
Acaciae whose bark is astringent and reddish, and from many other 
plants, which, by boihng, yield a juice of the same nature.* There 
are two sorts of Catechu now exported from India to England, a pale 
kind from Bengal, and another of a yellowish brown colour from 
Bombay ; the first being the produce of Canara, the latter of 
Bahar.f 
This species of Acacia is a large shrub, or tree, and grows to the 
height of from ten to twenty feet, and to twelve or fifteen inches in 
diameter; the trunk and older branches are covered with a thick, 
rough, feruginous bark ; the branches, when young, are somewhat 
downy ; the older branches are beset with numerous pairs of small 
recurved spines, originating in the stipulas ; the leaves are placed 
alternately on the younger branches, and are composed of from 
fifteen to thirty pair of pinnte, about two inches long, each haying 
many (often forty or more pairs) leaflets, which are hajdly a quarter 
of an inch in length, linear, covered with short hairs, and of a pale 
green colour ; the common petiole is often furnished with a few re- 
curved prickles, and a small gland is placed at the base of each pair 
of pinnae ; the flowers are hermaphrodite and male, and arise from 
the axilla of the leaves in close spikes, three or four inches long ; 
the flowers are of a pale yellow, stalked, and, hairy ; the calyx is tu- 
bular, hairy, and five-toothed ; the corolla is about twice the length 
of the calyx, monopetalous, and divided at the limb into five pointed 
segments ;. the filaments are numerous, capillary, double the length 
of the corolla, and united at the base with the gerraen, and support 
roundish anthers ; the germen is ovate ; the style is slender, and 
crowned with a simple stigma ; the fruit is a smooth lance-shaped 
legume, three or four inches long, and less than one broad, with an 
undulated smooth margin, containing six or eight roundish flat seeds. 
Preparation of Catechu. " After felling the trees, the 
* Vide Misc. Nat. Car, Dec. 2, Ann. 4, Obs. 3, and Dec. 2, Ann. 3, p. 8. 
t Dr. Fothergiirs Works, vol. ii. p. 296. Also Dr. Buchanan's Journey throDgli 
Canara, &c. vol. iii. p. 177. 
