Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/616

536 The composition of American Storax deviates so insignificantly from Oriental Storax that they may be regarded as identical. The Agricultural Ledger. 1904— No. 9 p. 120.

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Syn. :— R, Mangle, ''Willd. Roxb''. 389.

Vern. ; — Bhorar (B.) ; Upoo-punna, adair-pouna (Tel.) ; Rai (Uriya) ; Kamo, kimro (Sind.) Kândel, hariya (Bomb.;.

Habitat : — Tidal shores, from the mouths of the Indus to Malacca and Ceylon. Bombay, Western Coast, Bandra (K. R. K.)

A small, evergreen tree, of muddy shores and tidal creeks of India, Ceylon, Burma and the Andaman Islands, sending down numerous aërial roots into the mud of the mangrove swamp. The lower part of the trunk dies early, and the tree is then supported by a number of branching aerial roots, standing, as it were, on stilts. Bark brown, fairly smooth, with vertical clefts. Sapwood light-red ; heartwood dark-red, extremely hard, splits and warps a little in seasoning (Gamble). Leaves elliptic mucronate by the excurrent midrib, 3-7 by l½-4in., narrowed at base. Stipules large, deciduous, enclosing the buds. Petiole 1-l¾in. Cymes 3-5-fid, from the axils of the current year's leaves. Peduncles 1-1½in.; " longer than the petioles," says Mr. Henslow, about 3-flowered ; pedicels short, thick. Flowers more or less drooping. Calyx-segments 4, irregular, narrowing upwards, ½in., oblong-lanceolate, keeled within, persistent and enlarged in fruit. Petals hairy within, shorter than the Calyx-limb, subconnivent, coriaceous, margins involute. Anthers 8. Fruit l½-2in. long, dark brown, embryo often attaining 30in. before falling from the tree. " The seeds often germinate while yet on the tree and drop as young plants into the mud below- The roots also progress and form constantly fresh stems supported by the buttressed roots standing out of the mud. (Gamble). 