Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/377

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N. O. SIMARUBEÆ.
297


enclosed in ovate-rotundate tomentose bracts. Flowers variable in size, normally 3-merous ; female flowers ⅓ to over ½in. in length. Calyx campanulate. Stamens in male flowers, inserted around the hairy rudiment of ovary. Ovary glabrous, incrassate above. Drupe ellipsoidal, subtrigonous with a bony 1-3 — celled stone. Cotyledons tripartite, contorted (Blume).

Use : — The gum, according to Ainslie, has the same properties as balsam of copaiba. It is applied in the form of an ointment to indolent ulcers. The oil expressed from the kernels might be substituted for almond oil.

258. C. strictum, Roxb. h.f.b.i., i. 534 ; Roxb. 504.

Eng. : — The black Damar tree.

Vern.. : — Kâlâ dammâr (H. B. and Guz.) ; Dhûp, gûgul (Bom.) ; Dhûp, râldhup (Mar.) : Karapu kongiliam, karapu dammar, congiliummarum, karuppu dâmar (Tam.) ; Nallarójan (Tel.) ; Manda-dhup, raldhupada (Kan.) ; Thelli (Mala.).

Habitat :— Western Peninsula, Concan, Bababuden Hills, &c.

A very large, straight, diciduous tree. Bark grey, roughish. Wood moderately hard, heart-wood pink, sap wood greyish white. This handsome tree, says Gamble, is one of the most conspicuous trees of the Western Ghat, especially when coming into new leaf, for the young leaves are of a bright crimson colour, very hairy and like red velvet. Branchlets, petiole, midrib and nerves beneath, densely clothed with soft reddish brown tomentum. Leaves imparipinnate, 1-1½ft., long more or less on flowering branches, varying to 4ft. Leaflets coriaceous, 12, 3-4 pair, serrate or crenulate while young, 3-6in. long, by 1½-2½ (5), in broad secondary nerves, prominent beneath Petiole 1/10-⅓in. Panicles shorter than leaves, upper lateral branches short or male flowers in sessile fascicles. Male flower ⅓in. long, in a narrow, racemiform panicle, 6-9in. long. Calyx tubular, with three shallow broad teeth. Petals coriaceous, oblong, rudimentary, ovary depressed, lobed, hispid. Female flowers in short few-fid racemes, less crowded on stout