378 THE TIMBER TREES AND USEFUL PLANTS. 
19. B. suaveolens, Rox : {Stereospermurn^ D.C.) paddl. A tall tree 
with a smoothish grey bark, becoming dark, and flaking off irregularly. 
Common throughout, and furnishes a useful second-rate timber, for 
planks, small beams, &c. Cart load — /6 ; 4£ -f- l£ yds. 1/8. 
Its seeds (gtithli) are by the natives applied behind the ears in cer- 
tain eye-diseases, in domestic medicine. 
20. Bombax hepta]}hyUu7n, Cav : semal, sembul. This tree, whose 
enormous buttressed trunk, and in spring its showy red flowers, render it 
a striking object, is or has been common all over the forest. 
Its timber is soft, coarse-grained, and not durable, and is mostly used 
for boxes, planks, hullowed-out tubes, &c. 5 x 1 J yds. 1/2. Nimchahs 
for wells are also made of it, and from its lightness it is employed for 
hollowed-out canoes, which are in use on theSardah and Ganges. It is 
useful also for floating timber rafts and on the Bombay coast for making 
fishing-boats. Its flower-buds {simlantd) are cooked with salt and pepper 
and eaten by natives ; 1 maund — /4, and an astringent gum (inochras) 
which exudes from the bark is collected and exported, being given in 
medicine for diarrhoea, &c. 1 maund 3/ — . 
21. Bradleia sp. : ? daraula, geya. A small tree occasional in various 
parts of the forest ; of no special use. 
22. Buchanania latifolia, Rox : kath-hhildwa, (murid, piytil.) A 
small tree with a thick, very dark bark, tesselated by furrows into 
small quadrangular pieces, common only along the innermost edge of 
this forest, but abundant in the outer Siwaliks. Its wood is soft and 
worthless. The large leaves are used as dishes by the natives. The 
bark is in some parts of India used in tanning ; and the oily kernel of 
the fruit appears here as elsewhere to be eaten like almonds in confec- 
tionery. In the Peninsula, a bland oil is occasionally extracted from 
the kernel. 
23. Butea frondosa, Rox : dhdk, dhakkd. Inside the forest this gets 
to be quite a large tree, which it scarcely ever is outside in the plains, 
but it does not extend to the innermost part of the belt. 12 maunds 
1/ — . Except as fuel, and as supplying a light charcoal fit for gunpowder, 
its wood is worthless here, and it appears to be used for building, &c, 
in those parts of India only where decent timber is ever scarce. 
Dhdk Ke-gond is very similar to gum kino, and is used as an astrin- 
gent in medicine and in dyeing blue. 1 maund — /4 ; 11 seers 1/ — . I 
cannot find that its extraction is in this forest carried on largely, but the 
tell-tale incisions on the trees in many parts show that it cannot be long 
since it was so. The flowers (kisic tisu) are exported towards Central 
India to be used (with lime) as a red dye— in the hote powder — and as 
an external application in medicine. 
In some parts of India a large amount of strong rope is manufac- 
tured from the fibre of the root-bark, which is here also occasionally 
employed for this purpose. 
