The Toon-tree grows to a large size, and yields a valuable reddish timber, resembling some kinds of mahogany. It has abruptly pinnate leaves composed of from six to twelve pairs of opposite, usually entire, smooth leaflets of an ovate-lanceolate shape; and its flowers are small, yellowish, and sweet-scented, and are disposed in terminal drooping panicles. Toon bark is powerfully astringent, but is said to be devoid of bitterness. It is much esteemed in the treatment of intermittent fever, though seldom administered alone, but generally prescribed in combination with the excessively bitter seed of the Guilandina Bonducella. The flowers yield a yellow dye, but the colour is not permanent.
Soymida febrifuga, A. de Juss. (= Swietenia febrifuga, Roxb.).
The specific name of this tree indicates its use as a medicine in fevers. The part employed is the bark, which is of a reddish colour and has a very bitter, slightly astringent, but not unpleasant taste. It was long ago highly recommended as a substitute for Peruvian bark by several English doctors in India, and appears to possess considerable medicinal virtues, though Ainslie found that when given in large doses it deranged the nervous system, occasioned vertigo and subsequent stupor. The tree is called "Shemmarum" by the Tamuls; "Soimido" by the Telingas (whence the generic name adopted by botanists); and "Rohuna" by the Bengalese. It is a very large, hard-wooded tree, with abruptly pinnate leaves composed of from three to six pairs of opposite, oval-oblong blunt leaflets; and produces large panicles of small yellowish flowers towards the points of the young branches.
The bark of another large Indian tree belonging to this order, the "Chikrassee" of the Bengalese (Chickrassia tabularis, A. de Juss.), is a powerful astringent, but, like the Toon bark, devoid of bitterness.
OXALIDACEÆ.
Averrhoa Bilimbi, Linn.
A syrup prepared with the juice of the excessively acid gherkin-like fruits of the Bilimbi is used by the native doctors in the treatment of fevers, as also is a conserve of the flowers. The Bilimbi is a small tree, with unequally pinnate leaves, which, like those of the well-known sensitive plant, are irritable and close their leaflets together when touched. Its fruits are commonly used for pickling by Europeans, both in the East and in the West Indies.
XANTHOXYLACEÆ.