SANTALUM ALBUM. Linn A small ever green tre t 30 feet in height and 4 feet in girth. bg in wavy tract from S. Canara southwards' • e and Coimbatore ; is most abundant ahnos r ghout the dry Denkena cotta taluk of Salem, 1 s abundant on other hill tracts in the Salem, Trichinopoly, and N. Arcot districts, such as the Shevaroys, Kollay Mallays, Eutehe Mallays, Javadies, e\tc:, and on the Pulneys in Madura. In these places it is found up to about 4000 feet elevation. It also thrives well in North Canara ; freely without any cultivation in all parts of the Bombay Dekhan ; may be seen there in quantities in waste gardens, even in some of the grass preserves, and in numbers of the hedges along the water - courses in Western Kandesh. But the NTorthern Bombay sandal-wood has not the high qualities of that found in the more southern provinces.
The Madras Forest Department have now large plantations of this valuable tree. It grows readily from seed if slightly shaded. Two or three seeds are sown in the pit where the tree is to stand, and at the same thne a few chili seeds round them ; the latter grow up before the sandal seedlings, and give them the necessary amount of shade whilst young ; eventually the strongest of the two or three seedlings only is left in the pit, the others being removed.
It is only the heart-wood that is scented and of any value, and trees grown slowly on rocky and dry poor soil produce the maximum of this ; where the tree is fouud in rich alluvial soil on the banks of rivers, etc., it is of very fine growth, but produces no heart-wood, and is consequently valueless. The heart-wood is yellow, and delici ously fragrant ; when unseasoned it weighs 72.75 lbs., and when seasoned 58 lbs., and its specific gravity is .924. It finds an immediate sale at Rs. 4 or 4.8 per maund of 28 lbs., and it is chiefly employed for making all sorts of ornamental articles, such as small tables, work-boxes, glove boxes, card-cases, etc. A valuable oil, used as a
perfume, is distilled from the roots and chips or pieces of the.heart-wood. The heart-wood of the tree yields the oil, and ono pound of the wood will yield about two drachrns. In North Canara there are many stills for makino. sandal-wood oil. The wood is burned as a perrume in houses and temples, both in India and China ; is used in the funeral ceremonies of the Hindus ; is employed for trunks, almiralis, etc., as a preservative against insects ; is much used in making work boxes, walking- sticks, pen - holders, and other small articles of fine ornament. Its powder is a favourite cosmetic with Hindu, Chinese, and Burmese ladies, and Hindus use it to form the sectarian marks on their foreheads. It is much used among the Chinese in cabinetzwork, and in the manufacture of fans and other ornamental articles.
In Mysore, foresters are employed to destroy the strong creepers which tend to choke the young plants springing from seed dropped in hedgerows by birds. It is their duty also to cut, annually, all the ripe trees, 20 years old, and to take care that the billets are properly prepared and sorted, and brought into the sandal godown.
Sandal-wood is very liable to the heart-shake, which decreases its value 20 to 30 per cent. It bears a small black berry, which, if planted, grows without any trouble. The seeds of the sandal wood tree yield by expression a thick and viscid oil, which is burned by the poorer classes in lamps. The attractive nature of the sandal tree is de scribed in the Sanskrit sloka, Round the stem of the Chandana dwell serpents ; on its top birds ; on its branches monkeys ; on its flowers bees,— so the riches of a good man are beneficial to all:— Roxb.; Bennett, Gatherings ; Gibson ; Cleghorn ; ; 'right ; Mason ; 31. E. J. 1l.; Wilson,la Theatre ;