408 Petch. — Mocharas and the Genus Haematomyces . 
After a branch has been lying on the ground for a few weeks, it begins 
to exude, through cracks in the bark, a yellowish, pasty, somewhat viscid 
substance. This appears in pulvinate masses, or runs down the side in 
thick strands, assuming all the varied forms associated with an exudation of 
gum or resin. If the cortex has been stripped off any part of the branch, 
this substance emerges from between the wood and the cortex, i. e. from 
the site of the cambium, and it issues from the same place on the cut end of 
a fallen branch or stem. It soon acquires a yellow-brown, polished, outer 
skin, and this increases in thickness and deepens in colour as the exudation 
ages. Sometimes the skin ruptures under the pressure of the exuding mass, 
and further projections grow out from the apex of the structure first formed. 
When old, it is red-brown to purple-brown, usually with a polished surface. 
As it dries it hardens and contracts, sometimes falling into irregular folds 
and convolutions, sometimes retaining its shape but becoming hollow. This 
exudation is Haematomyces spadiceus. 
The following recent occurrence illustrates its usual mode of appearance. 
A branch about' 35. feet long, and 9 inches in diameter at the butt, was 
blown down at the beginning of July, during the rains. In falling, the outer 
half of it lodged in a small tree, so that it stood in a nearly vertical position 
with the thicker end on the ground. During August, the upper part of the 
branch, above a height of 20 feet, produced numerous green shoots, while 
the lower end which rested on the ground began to produce the usual 
exudation. During dry weather in September, shoots arose from the lower 
end also, and the condition on September 24 was as follows : The exudation 
was issuing from cracks in the lowest 4 feet, and the same region bore green 
shoots up to a length of about 9 inches, but the shoots were situated chiefly 
in the lowest 2 feet 6 inches. On the next 10 feet above that, the bark was 
dead, but the uppermost 20 feet bore green shoots, up to a foot in length, 
without any exudation. During a week’s drought at the end of September, 
the shoots on the upper part began to wither, and the exudation began to 
issue in small amount from the same region. It would appear from this, and 
other similar observations, that this exudation is only formed in living 
cortex. When, on a fallen branch or stem, a bud bursts through the cortex, 
the yellow mass frequently appears at or near its base. 
Mocharas. 
This exudation from the Bombax has long been known in India, where 
it is sold as a drug in the bazaars under the name of Mocharas, or Mochras, 
or Mocherus, &c. Mocharas means the juice ( ras ) of the Mocha, the latter 
being the Sanskrit name of the Bombax. The ‘ Dictionary of the Economic 
Products of India ’ describes it as a brown, astringent, gum-like substance, 
which occurs in the form of light or dark brown tears, often hollow, and 
much resembling galls. Owing to the usual confusion attending the native 
