336 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1881. 
LIME FROM THE KUMBUK TREE: 
LIME, REMARKABLE QUANTITIES OF, IN THE WOOD OF 
CERTAIN TREES, BUT ESPECIALLY IN THAT OF THE 
" KUMBUK." (SINHALESE), " MAKUTHA" (TAMIL), 
"TERMINALIA ARJUNA," AND "T. tomen- 
tosa" (bedd.). 
" Or, when dyspeptic and exceeding weak, 
Will read on salt^ phosphatic, found in teak. ,: 
To the Editor, 
Kelvin Grove, Colombo, 22nd Aug. 1881. 
Dear Sir, — The letter from Mr. Cochran in your 
issue of the 20th inst., giving the analysis of a sample 
of wood ashes, which showed the remarkable percentage 
of 56 00 of lime, equal to lOO'OO of carbonate of lime, 
has reminded me of a communication received 
from Mr. John Dent Young, exactly seven yeais ago, 
referring to the fact that on the road between Anu- 
radl.apura and Kuiunegala the natives burnt the 
wood of the kumbuk tree for the sake of the lime 
found in its ashes, which they used for building pur- 
poses, and also of an analysis of the samples of ashes 
made for me by the late Dr. Koch. 
Mr. Young at the time wrote to me as follows : — 
"I had heard of the process of making lime from 
the wood of the kumbukgaha, but I never saw any 
till a few days ago, when I found several people en- 
gaged in burning the wood for lime, on the road from 
Anuradhapura towards Kurunegala. The asi.es seem 
all to disappear and the lime remains nearly pure, 
ft struck me that the matter might interest you, so 
I send a small sample of ashes and of the lime pre- 
pared for mastication. There is no limestone to be 
found within about 15 miles of the place. If there is 
anything curious in this, and you wish to have fur- 
ther information, I shall be very ^,lad to collect all 
I can I did not forget your commission about the 
chameleons ; they are met with about Mullaittivu and 
Punakari — Pooneryn, but the natives make them into 
medicine ! ! hence the difficulty of getting them." 
Dr. Koch's report ran as follows : — 
"I have carefully examined the contents of the two 
parcels which accompanied your letter of the 26tb 
ultimo, and have not the slightest hesitation in pro- 
nouncing them both to be composed mainly of car- 
bonate of lime. I found a very slight trace ofmag- 
nesia in the parcel labelled 'ashes of the kumbuk 
tree,' but the prepared stuff is as pure a specimen 
of calcic carbonate as you can procure. I deferred 
writing to you, hoping you would have looked in 
some morning and afforded me an opportunity of shew- 
ing you under the microscope typical crystals (octa- 
hedral and dumb-bell) of oxalate of lime prepared trom 
these specimens."* 
You will perceive that by not at the time pub- 
lishing the above interesting communications I have 
done injustice to my friend Mr. Young, and to the 
memory of my friend the late Dr. Koch, and at the 
same time deprived your readers of information which 
is most interesting as well as useful. 
If you will now, in addition to the above, reproduce 
the following extracts on this tree, which is widely 
spread over Ceylon and a large part of India, I think 
the) will form a paper worth a place in the pages 
of your Tropical Agriculturist, viz. : — 
(1) The account of it in Sir J. E. Tennent's Cey- 
lon : — 
" The Kumbuk of the Sinhalese (called by the Tamils 
maratha-maram) is one of the noblest and mosi widely 
distribuied tiees in the island ; it de:ights in the banks 
. of rivers and moist borders of tanks and canals ; it 
* 1 had the pleasure of looking at a slide prt pared 
by Dr. Koch, and noticed the peculiar dumb-bell shaped 
objectu and the others alluded to. — W. P. 
overshadows the stream of the Mahawelliganga, almost 
from Kandy to the sea ; and it stretches its great arms 
above the still water of the lakes on the eastern side 
of the island. 
" One venerable patriarch of this species, which grows 
at Mutwall, withm three miles of Colombo, towers 
to so great a height above the surrounding forests of 
coconut palms, that it forms a landmark for the native 
boaimen, and is discernible from Negombo, more than 
twenty miles distant. The circumference of its stem, 
as measured by Mr. W. Ferguson, in 1850, was forty- 
five feet close to the earth, and seven yards at twelve 
feet above the ground. 
"The timber, which is durable, is applied to the 
carving of idols for the temples, besides being extens- 
ively used for le.-s dignified purposes; but it is chiefly 
prized for the bark, which is sold as a medicine, and, in 
addition to yielding a black dye, it is so charged with 
calcareous matter that its ashes, when burnt, afford a 
substitute for the lime which the natives chew with 
their betel." 
(2) From the " Ceylon Timber Trees" in your Direc- 
tory for 1863:— 
" T. Glabra," W. et A. 314. " T. alata," Moon, Cat. 
73. Kumbuk, Singh. Marutham, or MdrwChu, Tarn, ex 
Rottl«r Dicty. pt. 4 p. 31. Marudummarum, Ainslie 
pp. 88, 181, 209, and 266. 
I have taken particular notice of this, in mai.y re- 
spects, extraordinary and majestic tree, from Belligam 
Northwards to Jaffna, and trom thence to Batticaloa, 
as well as in the central parts of the island ; but 
whether growing along the banks of the Gmdurah, the 
Kalu, Kalany, or Mahavelli Gangas, in the vicinity of 
tanks or sandy plains of Jaffna, or on the borders of 
the Batticaloa Lake, — in every place of which it is well 
known by either its Singhalese or Tamil name, Kumbuk 
or Marutha, — I have scarcely seen it vary in itsgeueral 
appearance, and in its propensity to become a large 
tree. The Singhalese narm- for this tree is as fixed as 
the hills, but I question if there is another tree in India 
so involved in confusion respecting its various Botan- 
ical and Native names : Sanscrit, Tamil, lelegno, &c, 
&c, as well as to the usefulness of its timber and 
other products. — It has been described under about a 
dozen species of " Pentaptera and Terminalia " every 
one of which with their native names and synonyms 
could very ronvenic ntly be included in one- and with- 
out many varieties too. — On turning to Dr. Birdwood's 
most excellent "Catalogue of the Economic Prod nets of 
the Presidency of Bombay," under the chapter on 
" Woods," I rind, respecting this tree the following 
remarks :—" There is much contusion regarding the 
Botanical synonyms of this tree, which I have not been 
able to unravel, and consequently the native names, 
except the local, are omitted." — Pridham vol. 11. p. 
772, borrowing from Forbes, I think, says that the 
natives believe that water will always be found by j 
digging near Kabnk (Kumbuk) trees, and a writer in] 
the "Colombo Examiner" Newspaper some time ago, 
gave an account of one oi these tr>-es w hich " sprung" 
a fountain of water out of its trunk, out of which a 
number of travellers slaked their extreme thirst and 
then the water ceased ! The Kumbuk tree near the 
high road beyond Mr. Morgan's at Mutwal, described 
by Sir Emerson Tennent, is the largest tree, within 
several miles of Colombo, and is well worth a visit. 
The late Revd. J. Roberie, in his Oriental Illusi rations' 1 
of the Bible, commenting on Psalm 37—6, alludes to 
this tree, as follows : — ',A truly wicked man is com-> 
pared to a tamarind tree, whote wood is exceedingly 
hard, and whose fruit is sour. That passasu, i. e,, 
fiend, is like the Marrutha marram (Terminalia alata.) 
This tree resists the most powerful storms ; it uevei* 
loses its leaves ( 1 W. F. ) and is sacred to Vyraver, 
the Prince of devils I have seen some, that would 
measure from 30 to 40 feet in circumference.' 
