SANTALUM, in botany, a genus of the Tetrandria Monogynia class and or der. Natural order of Onagrz, Jussieu. Essential character : calyx tour•toothed ; corolla four-petalled, with the petals growing on the calyx, besides tour lands; berry inferior, one-seeded. There is only one species, viz. S. album, white and yellow sandal wood. This tree has the appearance of a myrtle, with stiff branchiate branches, jointed ; in habit, leaves and inflorescence, resembling the privet. It is a native of many parts of India. In the Circar mountains, where it is wild, it is of little value, as it is gene rally of a small stature. On the Malabar coast it is very large, and the wood of the best kind. The difference of colour con stitutes two kinds of sanders, both em ployed for the same purposes, and having equally a bitter taste, and an aromatic smell. With the powder of this wood a paste is prepared, with which the Chi nese, Indians, Persians, Arabians, and Turks, anoint their bodies. It is likewise burnt in their houses, and yields a fra grant and wholesome smell. The great est quantity of this wood, to which a sharp and attenuating virtue is ascribed, remains in India. The red sanders, though i n less estimation, and less generally used, is sent by preference into Europe. This is the produce of a different tree, which is common on the coast of Coromandel.
Some travellers confound it with the ing.
The S. album, or white sanders, is brought from the East Indies, in billets about the thickness of a man's leg, of a pale-whitish colour. It is that part of the yellow sanders wood which lies next The bark. Great part of it, as met with in the shops, has no smell or taste, nor any sensible quality that can recommend it to the notice of the physician.
The S. flavum, or yellow sanders, is the interior part of the wood of the same tree which furnishes the former, is of a pale-yellowish colour, of a pleasant smell, and a bitterish aromatic taste, accompa nied with an agreeable kind of pungency. This elegant wood might undoubtedly be applied to valuable medical purposes, though at present very rarely used. Dis tilled with water, it yields a fragrant es sential oil, which thickens in the cold into the consistence of a balsam Digested in pure spirit, it imparts a rich yellow tincture ; which being committed to dis tillation, the spirit arises, without bring ing over any thing considerable of the flavour of the sanders. The residuum contains the virtues of six times its weight of the wood.