N. 0. URTICA0E&. 
1205 
Habitat : — Deccan Peninsula, native of the forests of the 
Western ghats ; cultivated throughout the hotter parts of India. 
A large, ever-green, glabrous tree, attaining 60ft. Wood 
moderately hard ; sapvvood pale, heart-wood bright-yellow, 
darkening on exposure ; very durable, seasons well. Bark thick, 
blackish, deeply cleft when old, yielding a gum. The juice is 
used as bird lime. Youngest shoots and midrib with soft, 
stiff hairs (Brandis.) Leaves 4-8in., thickly coriaceous, dark- 
green, elliptic-oblong or ovate, acuminate, entire or 3-lobed ; 
base acute, rather rough beneath ; leaves of young plants often 
lobed ; nerves 7-8 pair. Petiole J-lin., rather slender ; stipules 
large spathaceous, lanceolate, glabrous. Flower-heads embraced 
by spathaceous deciduous stipular sheaths, axillary and terminal, 
often 2-nate. Peduncles fin., at first slender. Male cylindric, 
2-6in., by l-2in., diam ; bractiolesO sepals 2, oblong or spatliu- 
late ; tips pubescent. Fruit 12-30 by G-12in., in young trees on 
large branches in old trees hanging on short stalks from 
the main stem or branches through conical protruberance of 
the rind, oblong or cylindric, tubercled, i.c., with flattisli, 
rarely acute, tips of the pyramidal antho-carps. Seeds oily, 
numerous, an inch long, oblong. Testa thin, coriaceous, 
surrounded by, a luxious pulp, which latter forms the staple 
food of the natives. Pulp is oaten cooked or uncooked when 
ripe, and preserved dry in Hat pan-cakes. Seeds eaten boiled 
or roasted. 
Uses : — The juice of the plant is applied externally to glan- 
dular swellings and abscesses to promote suppuration. The 
tublers, if worn on the waist, are said to cure hydrocele. The 
young leaves are used in skin diseases, and the root is used 
internally in diarrhoea. 
The leaves considered an antidote to snake-poison. (T. N. 
Mukerji.) The unripe fruit is astringent, the ripe laxative, but 
rather difficult to digest, although very nutritious. 
The dye stuff jackwood contains, in addition to morin, cyanomaelurin C 15 
H,, 0 6 or C 18 H 16 0 7 . It possesses the characteristic property that its 
alkaline solution on warming develops a deop indigo blue colouration. It 
was noticed that in certain important respects its properties were similar to 
those of catechin, the colourless crystalline constituent of gambier catechu, 
