A large shrub, sometimes scandent. Bark blackish-grey, rough, vertically fissured. Wood brownish-white, in alternate bands of varying width of woody and bast texture and with a dark-red, hard centre (Gamble). "A rigid, wiry, scrambling shrub " says Brandis, " with soft, silvery white wood, armed with stout divaricating branchlets, ending in pungent spines." Talbot thus describes the plant : — " A stiff, erect, glabrous shrub, with horizontal branches, spine-tipped at the ends." Entirely glabrous. Leaves fascicled on the node of branches ; leaflets
7-11, often nearly opposite, ovate-oblong, ¼-½in. long. Flowers yellowish- white, in congested, sessile, axillary panicles; pedicels short. Calyx 1/10in. long, minutely downy, teeth short, obtuse. Corolla twice as long as the Calyx. Stamens 10in., a single sheath, sometimes in 2 separate sheaths of 5 each. Pod lin. long, reniform, coriaceous, flat, 1-seeded, brown, glabrous.
Use: — The roots powdered absorb alcohol, and a spoonful of the powder in a tumblerful of water is- said to be sufficient to destroy, in less than half an hour, the effects of alcohol, even in cases bordering on delirium tremens (Kurz).
405. Pterocarpus santalinus, Linn. Fil. h.f.b.l, ii. 239, Roxb. 536.
Sans. : — Raktachandana.
Vern ; — Ragat-chandan, lâlchandan, undum (H.) ; Rakta- chandan (B.); Shenshandannum, segappo-shandanum (Jam.); Erragandhapuchekka, kuchandanum (Tel.) ; Kempu-gandha (Kan.); Ooruttah chundanum (Mal.); Lâl-chundan (Dec); Raktachandan, ratanjli (Bomb.).
Habitat :— South India, chiefly Cuddapah, North Arcot and the southern portion of the Karnool District.
A smooth tree, attaining 25ft. Bark blackish-brown, deeply cleft, both vertically and horizontally into rectangular plates. Wood extremely hard. Sapwood white, heartwood dark, claret-red to almost black, but always with a red tinge, orange- red when fresh cut, the shavings giving an orange-red colour. Branches obscurely grey-downy. Leaflets 3, rarely 4 or 5, broad-elliptic, obtuse, 1½-3in. long, underside pale and clothed
