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THE ALMUG, OR ALGUM TREE OF THE ANCIENTS. 
describe these previously to enlarging upon the true one. The first which we will 
name, is the — 
Bed Sandal, or Sander's Tree (Pterocarpus Santalinus,) Fig. b. — This is a 
native of Ceylon, and various parts of the East Indies, where it forms a lofty tree, 
seventy feet or more high, with wide spreading branches. Leaves consisting of 
three pinnae; leaflets ovate, obtuse, entire, smooth on the upper surface, downy 
beneath. Flowers yellow, and produced in axillary panicles, bractless. Calyx 
somewhat hispid ; divided into five segments. Corolla papilionaceous. Standard 
obcordate, erect, renexed, dentate, striated with vermilion. Wings spreading, 
denticulate, wavy. Keel short, oblong, somewhat inflated. Stamens diadelphous, 
nine connected, and one free. Anthers white, globular. Ovary oblong, compressed, 
hairy. Style curved. Stigma obtuse. Legume roundish, smooth, compressed, 
indehiscent, falcated. Seed round, compressed. 
It became an inhabitant of our stoves, so long ago as 1800, but is not at present 
found in many collections. The wood is dark-red, veined with black, hard, close- 
grained, and capable of receiving a high polish ; it is also so heavy, that it will sink 
in water. If immersed in ether or alcohol, it yields a deep red colouring resinous 
matter, which has been named Santaline, and which will form beautiful coloured 
precipitates, if mixed with metallic solutions. It also yields an inferior kind of 
Dragon's Blood, although a better sort is obtained from Pterocarpus Draco ; but the 
chief supply of this gum is at present procured from the Calamus Draco, and verus, 
two stove palms, which have been in our collections since 1820. 
In cultivation the plant requires the temperature of an ordinary stove, and to be 
potted in light turfy loam, or a mixture of loam and peat ; and propagation is 
effected by cuttings of the half-ripened wood, planted in pots of sand, without 
damaging their leaves, and plunged in heat under a glass. 
The Peacock Sandal Tree (Adenanthera pavonina) — forms a wide spreading 
tree, rising 100 feet or more in height. The leaves are bipinnate ; leaflets oval, 
obtuse, glabrous. Floivers produced in axillary racemes, hermaphrodite. Calyx 
five-toothed. Petals five, lanceolate, acute, valvate in aestivation, yellow. Stamens 
ten. Anthers each terminated by a deciduous gland. Legume falcate, linear, 
compressed, membranous, many-celled, swollen. Seeds scarlet, with a circular 
streak in the middle on each side, highly polished. The timber of this tree 
greatly resembles that of Pterocarpus Santalinus, being solid, heavy, close- 
grained, and of a similar red colour. It also belongs to the Natural. Order 
Fabacece of Lindley's b< Vegetable Kingdom," and is a native of the East Indies, 
whence it was introduced to this country in 1759. The natives use the powdered 
leaves in their religious ceremonies ; the seeds, which are handsome, and remarkably 
uniform in size, form an article of food, and are made use of by jewellers as weights- 
In the cultivation of this plant, all that is required is a moderate stove heat, 
a soil composed of turfy loam and peat, good drainage, a liberal supply of water 
during the season of growth, with proper limits in the period of rest, and at all times 
