ISONANDRA ACUMINATA.
Isonandra Cullenii, Drury. I 13. elliptical, Datzell. Eassia acuminata, Beth!.
Indian gotta tree, ENG. I Pashonti, . . ISIALEAL.
Pachonti, . . TAM.
Grows in the forests of Coorg, the Wyuad, Travancore, and in the Animallay mountains. It attains a height of 80 or 90 feet, and furnishes a good wood, and capable of receiving a good polish. It exudes from the trunk a substance having similar characters to the gutta-percha of commerce ; this is procured by tapping, but the tree requires an interval of rest of some hours, or even of days, after frequent incision. In five or six hours, upwards of lbs. was collected from four or five incisions in the tree. When fresh, this is of a milk colour, the larger lumps having a dull-red colour. The gum is hard and brittle at the ordinary temperature, but becomes sticky and viscid on the increase of heat, such as that from friction in a mortar ; and when this condition is reached, it does not, until after the lapse of several days, resume its original consistence.
Boiled with water it becomes of a reddish-brown colour, rendering the water turbid and slightly saponaceous. • With some chemical re-agents, the behaviour .of the gum 'was exactly. like that of the gutta-percha, while with others only a slight similarity was observed. After solution in naphtha or turpentine, gutta-percha resumes its original condition, but the pachonta continues viscid and sticky, and if again much cooled becomes brittle and friable as at first. It is not found applicable to all the purposes for which gutta-percha is used, but 20 to 30 per cent. of it may be mixed with gutta-percha, without destroying the qualities of the gutta.—Surgeon-General Balfour in Report of Madras Government, Central Museum ; Madras Conservator's Report, 1858, p. 6 ; Year Book of Facts.. .