N. O. Et)PH0RI5IACI?.E. 1 135 
Habitat : — Throughout the hotter parts of India, along the 
foot of the Himalaya from Kashmir to Misbmi. 
A deciduous tree, 50-60ft., with thorns on the back of young 
stems. Baric Jin. thick, grey or brown, rough with longitudinal 
cracks and exfoliating in long irregular plates. Wood moderately 
hard to hard, grey to olive-brown, close-grained ; seasons well. 
Leaves coriaceous, elliptic-oblong, ovate or obovate, acute, 
obtuse or rounded at the apex, the base usually rounded, 
bright-green and glabrous on the upper surface and turning 
pinkish-purple before falling, often finely tomentose beneath ; 
main lateral nerves 15-25 pairs, straight, prominent, finely 
reticulate between ; petioles J-Jin. long, stipules ovate-lanceo- 
late, unequal at the base, deciduous. Flowers dioecious, 
greenish-yellow, sessile or shortly pedicelled, arranged in 
dense axillary clusters or in long axillary or terminal panicled 
spikes exceeding the leaves; bracts small, obtuse, villous 
Calyx Jin. in diam. ; lobes fleshy, spreading, triangular-ovate, 
acute, glabrous and often tinged with red ; tube pubescent. 
Petals of males obovate, pectinate ; of the females subspathulate. 
Disk of male flower thick and pulpy ; of the female truncate, 
enclosing the ovary. Drupe Ueshy, subglobose, Jin. in diam., 
seated on the persistent hardly enlarged calyx, flesh-coloured 
or purplish-black when quite ripe. (Duthie.) 
Uses : —The bark is a strong astringent and is used in 
Western India as a lithontriptic (DymocD. Used as a liniment 
with gingelly oil in rheumatism (Surg.-Major Patton in Watt’s 
Dictionary). Root astringent (J. J. Wood’s Plants of Chutia 
Nagpur, p. 135). 
Chemical composition . — The bark afforded 41-7 per cent, of water extract, 
containing 89'9 parts of tannic acid. The tannic acid gave a greyish-green 
precipitate with plumbic acetate, and a blue-black colour with ferric 
chloride. The air-dried bark left 7'35 per cent, of ash on incineration. 
Although this is one of the most astringent barks in India, it does not appear 
to be known to, or used by, Europeans in the arts. 
1126. B. montana, Willcl., h.f.b.i. v. 269, Roxb. 
705. 
Vera. : — Kargnalia, kliaja, geia, kusi (ID; Gondni (Saliaran- 
pur); Geio (Nepal); Kaislio (Ass.); Kurgnulia (Kumaon) ; 
