Leguminosae. Ill 
in contracted compound racemes. The legume or pod is one and a 
half to two inches long, laterally incurved, flatly compressed, some- 
what convex on the outer, concave on the inner side and six to eight 
seeded. 
The sinuous pods of the Dwi-divi contain a large quantity of a 
very powerful and quickly acting tanning material which is very 
valuable. The tree is cultivated in India and other tropical coun- 
tries mainly for its seeds, but in Honolulu only a few specimens 
are extant. Here it is mainly grown as a curiosity, rather than for 
either beauty or usefulness. One tree may be found in the Govern- 
ment Nursery grounds on King Street and another in the courtyard 
at Hilo, Hawaii. The pods have still another use; a powder is pre- 
pared which is of a light yellow color and astringent to taste ; it is 
used as an antiperiodic in cases of intermittent fever, and as such 
it has been tried with excellent results in India. 
The Dwi-divi is a native of South America and the West Indies, 
found mainly in marsh)- situations in New Granada, Mexico, Nor- 
thern Brazil and Jamaica. 
Caesalpinia sappan Linn. 
Sappan Wood. 
Caesalpinia sappan Linn. The Sappan Wood is a small thorny 
tree reaching a height of fifteen feet with leaves a foot and a half 
long composed of about twenty opposite pinnae with twenty to 
thirty leaflets, which are oblong-rhomboid, oblique, and are attached 
at the lower corner. The flowering panicles are often as long as 
the leaves and are terminal. The flowers are an inch in diameter 
and yellow; the pods oblong to oblong obovate, hard, shining, about 
three inches long and one and a half wide, with a hard recurved beak 
at the upper angle. 
The Sappan Wood yields a valuable red dye which is, however, 
also prepared from the pods and bark, while the root is supposed to 
afford a yellow dye. 
Sappan Wood is mostly used in calico-printing, it is steeped in 
water and yields a red dye. It is, however, not permanent. The 
wood, though chiefly used as a dye, is said to be a useful astringent, 
containing tannic and gallic acids; it is given internally in decoction 
and is useful in certain forms of skin diseases. The natives of 
India use it also as a blood purifier. It is a native of Malay and 
India but is not a common tree in Honolulu whither it was intro- 
duced in the earlv sixties. 
