Flora Medica

CORDIACEJE.t. 76. (Rheede iv. t. 37.) Many parts of India, Persia, Arabia,Egypt.Trunk generally crooked, from 8 to 12 feet high, and as thick orthicker than a man's body. Bark grey, cracked in various directions.Branches numerous, spreading, and bent in every possible direction,forming a dense shady head. Leaves scattered, stalked, ovate, oval, orobovate, exterior half slightly scolloped, or toothed, smooth above,below a little scabrous when old ;from 2 to 3 inches long, and from1 to 2 broad; petioles about the length of the leaves. Paniclesterminal, and also lateral, globular, dichotomous. Bracts none. Flowersnumerous, small, white ;a very large proportion of them are sterile,and they always want the style. Calyx tubular, widening towards themouth, and there torn as it were into 3, or 5 divisions, smooth, not inthe least striated. Corolla with revolute lobes. Stylein the fertileflowers as in the genus, in the barren flowers wanting. Drupe globular,smooth, the size of a cherry, sitting in the enlarged calyx, when ripe,yellow, the pulp is almost transparent, very tough and viscid. Nutcordate, at both ends bidentate and perforated, rugose, somewhat4-sided, 4-celled, but it rarely happens that all the cells prove fertile.Seeds solitary. Roxb. The smell of the nut when cut is heavy, anddisagreeable, the taste of the kernels like that of fresh filberts. It isthe true Sebesten of the European Materia Medica. The fruits accordingto Roxburgh, are not used in the Northern Circars of India,for any medicinal purpose. When ripe they are eaten by the natives,and also most greedily, by several sorts of birds, being of a sweetishtaste. The wood is soft, and of little use except for fuel. It isreckoned one of the best kinds for kindling fire by friction, and isthought to have furnished the wood from which the Egyptians constructedtheir mummy-cases. The bark is said by Dr. Royle to beaccQunted a mild tonic..482