CEDRELA TOONA. Roxb. Toon.
C. hexandra, Wall. in Roxb.
Tunas, Toon, BENG.,SANS. Toon tree, . . . ENG.
Kooruk, . . . BoMBAY. Toona, . . . . HIND. Thit-ka-do, . . Bean. Kooruk, . . . 3Inun. Tunda, . . . . CAN. Wunjooli mantra? . TAM. Sauola mars, . . „ Nandi, TEL.
This large and valuable tree grows at the foot of the Himalayas, and to the south, in Bengal and both Peninsulas of India, in varying abundance. Abundant 25 miles north-east of Trevandrum ; is found in the Mysore and Salem jungles in large quantities ; also along the crest of the ghats from Travancore to Goa. In Coimbatore it is a valuable timber tree of large size. In the raees of S. Konkan and Lower Canara, the tree is more common. It grows abundantly in some of the deep ravines in western Kandesh, and it grows in the ravines of the Konkan. At the Tambur river, in East Nepal, Dr. Hooker measured a toon tree (Cedrela) 30 feet in girth at five feet above the ground. The wood is a choice one for cabinet purposes, but is not used for any others, except for house beams when it is procurable in sufficient quantity. It is called bastard cedar from an aromatic resin exuding from it, resembling that of the American cedar. It is often sold in Madras under the general name of Chittagong wood, and is the most valuable of the woods known by that commercial name,—the true Chittagong wood, however, being Chicrassia tabularis. Cedrela toona has an erect trunk of great height and size, with smooth grey bark. The flowers are
very numerous, small, white, and fragrant, like honey. The seeds are numerous, imbricated, winged. It seems probable that the trees known commercially as toon are at least different species ; but the woods sold under this name are all red-coloured, of varying hues. The Gurnsur Mahalimbo wood, said to be this tree, and to be tolerably common, is described as not liable to be attacked by insects, and is on that account used for making boxes, etc. The fruit and bark are used medicinally in fever and rheumatism. The bark is powerfully astringent, but not bitter ; native physicians use it in conjunction with the powdered nut of the Ciesalpinia bonducella, an intense bitter. M. Nees von Esenbeck has pub lished an account of some experiments on the bark, which indicated the existence of a resinous astringent, a brown astringent matter, and a gummy brown extractive matter resembling ulmine. The bark was used in Java by Blume in epidemic fevers, diarrhoea, and other complaints. Horsfield -gave' it in dysentery, but only in the stage, when inflammatory' symptoms had disappeared.. Its flowers, in conjunction with safflower, are used by the inhabitants of Mysore for dyeing the beautiful red colour called there Cub-i-nari. A cubic foot weighs 28-41 lbs. —Dr.e. Ro.ebu•gh, i. 635, Hooker, Mason, Gibson, Cleg horn, Stewart; Beddow ; Voigt ; Powell.