Botanical Name - Pterocarpus marsupium

----- PTEROCARPUS, Linn.; F.B.I. II-238. P. Marsupium, Roxb.; F.B.I. II-239. Brandi's Ind. Trees, 240. Gamble's Ind. Timbers, 261. Vern. Bijasal. Hind. Pedda - eggi, Pedda-eggashi, Tel. Bibla, Mar.

----- A large deciduous tree. Bark grey, with longvertical cracks, exfoliating in small pieces of irregular shape and size. Leaves with soft adpressed hairs while young, dark green, shining. Leaflets 5-7, coriaceous, elliptic, obtuse, emarginate, sometimes shortly acuminate, glabrous when full grown. Flowers yellow or white, pedicels much shorter than calyx, in terminal panicles. Calyx peduncles and pedicels clothed with dark brown hairs. Calyx turbinate, 1/5 - 1/4 in. finely brown-downy; teeth short, somewhat unequal. Corolla twice the length of the calyx; petals exserted with long claws; standard and wings crisped, keel obtuse. Stamens monadelphous, the sheath deeply 2-fid. Ovary stalked, 2-6-ovuled. Pod nearly orbicular, 1 1/2 - 2 in. across, indehiscent, rarely other than 1-seeded, with a broad rigid wing.

----- A large and very beautiful tree, especially when in flower in the beginning of the rains. It is one of the most lofty and striking trees in the forest with a very tall trunk. It is widely diffused, but the largest trees are found in the Mahadeopur, Itkial and Pakhal Reserved Forests south of the Godavari, where they grow up to 8 ft.girth, and the average length of the logs from 18-30 ft. It is next to Teak, the best wood for building purposes, and it has also been utilized for Railway sleepers on the Hyderabad Godavari Valley Railway and proved very satisfactory and durable. The wood is very hard and close-grained, containing a red resin; sap-wood small; heart-wood yellowish-brown, with darker streaks. The weight per c. ft. averages about 53 lbs. which is heavier than Teak by about 10 lbs. It is hard and durable, seasons well and takes a fine polish; much used for door and window frames, posts and beams, agricultural implements, cart-building, etc. It also makes handsome furniture and resembles fine mahogany, but must be well seasoned, as when wet or unseasoned it imparts a yellow stain. When used in house building also, the wood when placed in contact with lime and exposed to the wet, gives out a rusty-brown colour, which some-what depreciates from its value. This tree is yields from incisions in the bark a blood-red juice, which, on being exposed to the sun, hardens and then quickly cracks into little angular masses and crumbling fragments, which, without further preparation, is identical with the " Kino " of commerce. The seed crop in not annual but occurs at intervals of 2-3 years, and the seeds do not always germinate. The fertile seed, however, germinates quickly, but owing to the long tap-root the seedlings do not bear tranplanting. The seedling when it occurs is profuse, but as the pods fall in the dry season, they are liable to be burnt.