The Bark is bluish-grey, with large polygonal scales. On young trees there are yellowish patches where the scales have fallen and the bark of the smaller branches is ochrous and powdery. The slash is pale crimson.
The Wood is dark brown or red-brown. In transverse section the rings are slightly darker lines, the pores are small, clear and open, mostly single, some in groups or nests of 2-4, rather unevenly and widely scattered. The rays are visible, not all continuous, some broader than others, evenly spaced with room for the pores between, showing in radial section as brown bands, so conspicuous on the sapwood as to colour it. In vertical section the pores are light coloured in the heartwood and dark in the sapwood, in which the resinous pore contents darken the wood in rings, showing as lines in the vertical section. The wood is tough and hard and not easy to work, though it has a slight sheen and takes a polish. The weight is 55 lbs. a cubic foot.
The Leaves are pinnate, 6 or 7 inches long with 6-10 alternate or opposite elliptical leaflets some 3 inches long and 1½ inches broad. Those nearer the top are more oval, those at the base rounder. The tip has a slight cleft. The leaf-stalks are very short and stout and covered with dusty brown hairs. The surface is waxy, there may be a few hairs, and bluish-green. The texture is rather leathery.
The Flowers, which appear in May, are found in masses all over the tree. They grow on short, branched stalks in dense clusters. There are no petals, their place being taken by the white petal-like sepals, 4 in number. There are 8 short, curved stamens with yellow anthers and a short pistil.
The Fruit is a drupe about 1½ inches across and flattened to about ¾ inch. It has a brown outer skin, a greenish, mealy flesh full of fibres which when the flesh decays remain round the kernel. This flesh is sweet and edible, but not very palatable. On small trees clusters of abortive fruits are found; little round, brown-green, soft growths which do not mature.
Uses.—The flesh is used by the natives in the manufacture of the sweetmeat “madi.”
Where it is large enough the timber is used for mortars, but the size is, as a rule, against this use.
DICHROSTACHYS NUTANS Br.—Dundu. LEGUMINOSAE.