Volume 1

The cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia : commercial, industrial and scientific, products of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, useful arts and manufactures / by Edward Balfour.

Balfour, Edward, 1813-1889.

Date:: 1885

Credit: The cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia : commercial, industrial and scientific, products of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, useful arts and manufactures / by Edward Balfour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

27/1296 (page 15)

$ACACIA STIPULATA. ACANTHACEAE. an extreme height of 30 feet, and circumference feet, the height from the ground to the inter- section of the first branch being 22 feet; and it is used for sugar crushers, pestles, mortars, and ploughshares. It is common in the forests of the Bombay Presidency, grows in Travancore, on the Coromandel coast, and is a common tree in Coim- batore, where it is frequently seen growing by the road-sides on account of the shade that its large head affords. The timber is large, and in old trees dark-coloured, very hard, and close enough grained for furniture; and large masses of very pure gum are often found on it. It is common in the hills and gardens of Murree and Hazara. The heart-wood makes good charcoal; the leaves and twigs are gathered as fodder for camels and other animals. The bark is stated to be applied to hurts of the eye (Madden) ; and the seed is officinal, forming part of an anjan for ophthalmic disease. The specific name of Juli- brissia, used by Bentham for the variety A. mollis, is a corruption of Gul-abresham.—Capt. Mac- donald; Drs. Mason, Stewart, McClelland, Cleghorn, Wight, Gibson; Voigt; Roxb. ii. 544 ; Cal. Cat. 1862. ACACIA STIPULATA. D. C. Mimosa stipulata, Roxb. ,, stipulacea, Roxb. Oi, Ohi, Durgari, Beas. Amulki,.... Beng. Seet, Burm. Surangra, ICasir, Chenab. Ac. Kangraensis, Jameson. Ban-drenkh, . Chenab. Yalaiti Siris, . . Hind. Lasren, . . . Jhelum. Ola, Ravi. This unarmed acacia has flowers of a pink colour. It is one of the largest trees of the genus, and is found in Dehra Doon, in the mountains north of Bengal, in Travancore, Courtallum, in most parts of the Peninsula, in Assam, in the forests from Rangoon to Tounghoo, and on the banks of the Ataran river. Dr. Stewart says that on the various rivers of the N.W. Himalaya, it grows at from 3000 occasionally to 6000 feet. It is handsome in appearance, resembling some- what Poinciana regia, and is seen in great abun- dance and luxuriance in portions of the Kangra valley, where its girth reaches 7, and occasionally 9 feet. In Kumaon, logs are obtained 20 to 30 feet long, and 4 to 6 feet in girth. Its wood is coarse-grained and tough, but not easily worked. —Stewart's Panjab Plants; Mr. Thompson's Report. ACACIA SUNDRA. D. C. Acacia chundra, Willde. | Mimosa sundra, Roxb. Lall kheir, Hind., Mahr. I Nalla chandra, . Tel. Karangally, . . Tam. | Sundra, .... ,, This tree grows throughout the Peninsula and the Sunderbuns, but varies in size in different localities. It is common in the jungles of Bombay, there always scrubby, small, and crooked; and though rather plentiful in the forests under the ghats, Dr. Gibson had not seen it of a size capable of affording planks. Mr. Rohde mentions that he had obtained, at Guutoor, planks 1 foot broad; that posts 5 feet long were procurable at twelve rupees per hundred, well suited for fencing and for rice pestles. The natives regard it as the most durable wood for posts in house-building, though, from its non-elastic nature, it is unfavourable to the holding of nails driven into it. The wood is of a dark colour, close-grained, very hard, heavy, and very strong, a one-inch bar sustaining a weight of 500 lbs. Sp. gr. 1‘296. It is also used for ploughs, mortars, and pestles, and for railway sleepers. A resin similar to that which exudes from the A. catechu is procured from this tree. The two trees are nearly alike, the uncertainty of the prickles absent or present being a distin- guishing characteristic of this one.—Mr. Rohde; Dr. Wight; Voigt; Cleghorn's Report; Useful Plants; Beddome, FI. Sylv. p. 50. ACACIA TOMENTOSA. Willde. Mimosa tomentosa, Roxb. \ Mimosa kleinii, . Poir. Salsein babula, . Beng. I Jungle nail tree, . Eng. Elephant thorn, . Eng. | Ani mulla, . . . Tam. Grows on the Madras side of India, common near Sholapore, in the Kandesh jungles and Ihi Bombay Dekhan, and is found in Bengal.— Voigt. ACACIA VERA.. Bauli. Gum arabic tree. Acacia nilotica. | Mimosa nilotica, Linn. The Acacia vera is a tree of the African desert, and, according to Wellsted, of Arabia, its leaves yield the camel the sole forage it can meet in those arid regions. Two products are obtained from it, one natural, the other artificial, namely, gum arabic and the dried acacia juice (Akakia of Dioscorides), a solid, dark-coloured, shining sub- stance, soluble in water, which it colours red. It is obtained by pounding the unripe fruit, and the juice is thickened before the sun, and then placed in bladders, in which it gradually dries, weighing about 5 or 6 ounces each. It is sold in the bazaars of Bengal in thin, very black cakes about the size of a rupee. It was much lauded by Hippocrates and Dioscorides. AVellsted found the Sumr trees of great size, and the gum exuding in considerable quantities; but very little of it was collected by the Bedouins, who complained that the price it brings in Maskat did not repay them for their trouble.—Wellsted, i. pp. 73 and 106; Baker's Albert Nyanza; O'Shaughnessy; Mendis. ACALEPHiE, or sea nettles, include a great number of radiate animals of which the Medusas are the type. They are common in all the seas. ACALYPHA BETULINA. Retz, Sprang. Acalypha spiciflorus, Lamb. | A. fruticosa, Forsk. Chunni maram, . Tam. | Cliinni, Tsinni, . Tel. Wood to be obtained about 18 inches in diameter, hard and heavy, not of much value to carpenters. Leaves attenuant and alterative, and an agreeable stomachic in dyspepsia and other ailments.— Wight; Hog. ACALYPHA IN DICA. Mukto-joori, . . Beng. Shwet busunda, . ,, Morkantee,... ,, Kooppie, . Ddk.,Hind. Kupameni, Maleal., Tam. Linn. Harita manjari, . Tel. Kuppanti chettu, ,, Puppanti, Mirutkunda, ,, Murupindi, . . ,, A small annual, common everywhere in the Peninsula and Bengal, and easily distinguished by the singular cup-shaped involucre which surrounds the flowers, in decoction it is cathartic; the leaves, with garlic, are anthelmintic. Mixed with common salt, the leaves are applied externally in psora, and the juice rubbed up with oil exter- nally in rheumatism. Wight also figures A. mappa. —Hog ; Useful Plants; Honigb.; O'Sh.; Voigt. ACANTHACEAB. R. Br. The Justicia tribe; its type is the genus Acanthus. The species are herbaceous or shrubby. Many are mere weeds; others bear handsome flowers with gaudy colours, but seldom with any odour. A very small number have been occasionally employed medicinally as emollients or diuretics. In Ceylon, ‘ nelloo ’ is$