A small shrubby tree some 10-15 feet high, widely distributed all over
the forests and sometimes found in great quantities over small areas.
It does not grow in the very dry sandy or rocky northern regions. It
has one or several stems from a common stock which spread out and form
an open low crown of no form. It can be readily distinguished in fruit
and flower.
=The Bark= is dark brown or almost black, with very small,
close-fitting rectangular scales. That of the branches is dark grey and
smooth. The slash is crimson and fibrous.
=The Thorns= are about ½ inch long, slender, very sharp, straight and
grey in colour.
=The Leaves= are 2 inches long and ¾ inch wide, tapering at both ends
and with pointed tip: sometimes rounded with slightly cleft tip. The
mid-rib has a tendency to curve back, the leaves folding up along it.
The surface is smooth and the stalk short and stout and curved.
=The Flowers=, which appear in January are in small axillary clusters
of a dozen or so, each having its own slender stalk growing from the
tip of a stouter main stalk. There are 4 small, slender, pointed
sepals, 4 petals whose tips are recurved and whose inside surfaces
are covered densely with soft, erect hairs, 8-10 stamens inside the
corolla, and a pleasant perfume which can be detected from a great
distance.
=The Fruits= are like yellow cherries, with thin skin, sweet flesh and
hard stone. The style remains as a prominent pointed tip to the fruit,
which is very subject to grubs that may destroy the whole crop.
=Uses.=—The fruit is eaten and is, with its acid sweet taste, very
refreshing.
[Illustration]
=ZIZYPHUS JUJUBA= Lam.—_Magariya_. RHAMNACEAE.
This species bears a marked resemblance to _Z. Spina-Christi_, but
differs essentially in the under-surface of the leaf having a dense
pubescence. It is, as a rule, a smaller tree, though examples may be
found almost as large as the other species, 40 feet high with a girth
of 5-6 feet. The crown is similar, with a dense tangle of armed twigs,
which interlace and droop to a considerable distance. The twigs are
very slender and zig-zag sharply at the nodes. This species, unlike the
other, is not often seen in towns, but occurs locally in plenty in the
forest, in the more open and drier localities especially. It is, like
the other, the favourite haunt of small birds, which build their nests
in association with those of a small wasp. The crown is not so dense as
that of _Z. Spina-Christi_, since the leaves are smaller and further
apart.
=The Bark= is a smoky grey colour with a brown tinge and has narrow
fissures and long stringy ridges and scales. The slash is cerise pink.
=The Thorns= are in pairs, the upper ¾ inch long and straight, the
lower shorter and sharply recurved. They are a pale orange colour, and
they and the light grey twigs are covered with a fine pubescence. The
upper, straight thorn differs from that of _Z. Spina-Christi_ in being
set at near right-angles with the twig, not sharply inclined forward.
=The Wood= is pale red, in transverse section darker. The sapwood is
white. In transverse section the rings show clearly as white bands in
the red ground, the pores are small and single and the rays extremely
fine, invisible to the naked eye. In vertical section the pores are
fine, the grain indistinct. The wood is fairly hard, saws well and
planes readily without picking up, to a smooth finish which will
polish. A good sound wood with occasional knots.
=The Leaves= are about 1½ inches long and ¾ inch broad, are alternate
and assume one plane with the upper surface outwards. They are dark,
shiny green above, with whitish venation, and thickly covered with a
grey pubescence beneath. The veins are palmate, three spreading from
the base, raised beneath. The margins are very finely serrate.
=The Flowers= are in small axillary bunches and are downy, greenish,
with a flat, 5-pointed calyx, 5 minute petals, and 5 minute stamens and
a bifid stigma. The clusters are not so numerous or large as those of
the other species. They appear about January.
=The Fruits= are small, reddish drupes about ½ inch in diameter, with a
crisp, whitish flesh, which is sweet and edible, and a stone which is
very large for the size of the fruit. The fruit is smaller and drier,
and the stone rounder and larger in comparison with it, than those of
the other species, _Z. Spina-Christi_. It ripens about December.
=Uses.=—The fruits are eaten fresh.
[Illustration]
=ZIZYPHUS MUCRONATA= Willd.—_Magariyar kura_. RHAMNACEAE.
This species is a small, irregular-shaped tree not, as a rule, above 20
feet in height with a girth of 2-3 feet. It is quite commonly met with
as a shrub-like plant, some 10-12 feet high with straggling branches
forming a tangle. There may be two or three stems springing at ground
level from a common stock. The crown is open and uneven, and the long
drooping branches extend to within a few feet of the ground.
=The Bark= is grey, with long, coarse fissures and rough scales.
=The Thorns= are in pairs, the dorsal one long and straight, the lower
shorter and recurved. They are brown in colour.
=The Leaves= are dark, dull green, soft on the upper surface, grey and
densely covered with velvety hairs beneath. They are about 2 inches
long and 1½ inches wide, with short stalks and have finely serrate
edges, which the other species have not. The venation is 3-palmate and
raised on the under surface. They are borne alternately on the twigs,
with a tendency to assume one plane, the upper surface outwards.
=The Flowers= are in small axillary clusters in the axil of the leaf
between the thorns, and are greenish-yellow with a 5-pointed calyx, 5
minute petals, 5 stamens, a bifid stigma and a yellow receptacle. They
appear in December.
=The Fruits= are similar, but larger than those of the other species
and are a rich red-brown, with a shiny, brittle skin, a white, mealy
flesh and a large stone. They are not edible.
=Uses.=—The fruits are chewed, but not swallowed, as a cure for
toothache. The wood is used for making bows of superior quality.
[Illustration]
=ZIZYPHUS SPINA-CHRISTI= Willd.—_Kurna_. RHAMNACEAE.
This species is generally found in and around towns where it attains a
height of over 40 feet with girths of over 6 feet. Closely resembling
_Z. Jujuba_, it can be distinguished at once from that species by
the absence of white on the underside of the leaf. The bright green
foliage and tangled crown, commonly spherical in young trees, are
readily recognised. Large trees have a great thicket of long, slender
twigs that intertwine and emerge here and there from the crown to a
distance of several feet, after the manner of the Bramble. It is a
good shade tree and this and its edible fruits are the reasons for it
being planted and preserved in towns. The tree is a favourite nesting
site for small birds which build their nests in association with a wasp
whose “honeycomb” guards the entrance to the nest.
=The Bark= is grey and deeply scoured with long fissures and ragged,
ridged scales which fall in large sections 6 inches long. The slash is
cerise.
=The Thorns= are in pairs on the white twigs. The upper thorn is long
and straight and the lower is shorter and sharply recurved. They are
light brown and the leaf rises between them with the flowers in the
leaf axil. The straight thorn points well forward.
=The Wood= is pale red, often with wide, brown discolorations; the
sapwood is white. In transverse section the rings are only faintly
marked; the pores are very small, numerous and single: the rays,
invisible to the unaided eye, are extremely fine and close together,
showing as small reddish bands in radial section. In vertical section
the pores are long and fine, the grain close, and the colour banded in
faint shades of the ground colour. The wood saws and planes well, is
sound, though liable to knots, fairly heavy and moderately hard. The
weight is 50 lbs. a cubic foot.
=The Leaves=, though they are arranged spirally round the twigs, tend
to assume one plane. The upper surface is bright green with a bluish
bloom and the venation roughens the underside. They are 1-2 inches long
and ¾-1 inch wide, the palmate venation composed of three principal
nerves, spreading from the base.
=The Flowers= are in small clusters in the leaf axils, on a common
stalk which divides into a number of more slender stalks each bearing
one flower. Each is ¼ inch in diameter, with a flat, 5-pointed calyx, 5
minute petals and 5 stamens, and a bifid stigma round which is a raised
disc which turns brown. The colour of the flower parts is green, and
the flowering season is from October to January.
=The Fruits= are small, light brown drupes about ¾ inch in diameter
with a sweet, edible flesh, juicy, then turning dry and mealy, and a
hard stone of large size for the fruit. There is often a very heavy
crop and they resemble cherries, ripening from November onwards.
=Uses.=—On account of its strength and supposed immunity from white
ants the wood is used for the rafters of flat-roofed mud houses.
The fruits are eaten fresh. The leaves, besides providing fodder for
goats and cattle, are crushed and applied to cure a skin disease.
[Illustration]
APPENDIX I.
NOTE ON THE TABLE OF FLOWERING SEASONS.
The following list of Flowering Seasons has been compiled from 3 years’
observations between 9° and 14° North Latitudes. No account has been
taken of out-of-season flowering, which is of casual occurrence and due
to various causes. The lengths of the flowering seasons are due chiefly
to the wide distribution of the trees and do not necessarily represent
the lengths of time individuals will bear flowers. Few species, in
fact, bear flowers for longer than one month; many for only a few days,
but a journey from north to south will show the effects of varying
humidity on the flowering season. Such an influence may be counteracted
by the date on which a fire swept through the country, fires exerting a
quickening influence on the flowering to a marked degree.
The arrangement of the monthly columns so as to place the New Year
in the middle of the page is made for the purpose of grouping the
flowering period of those species which start flowering before January,
whose periods would otherwise be broken up. Comparatively so few trees
flower after June that the breaking of their periods is of little
account.
This list will illustrate, also, the effect of fires at various times
of the dry season on the different species, which may be more exactly
determined by making an allowance for the situation of a forest in
terms of degrees latitude. In this connection attention may be drawn
to the large number of species whose fruits or seeds persist on the
branches until the rainy season of the following year, and which will
be destroyed by such fires. Only those species whose fruit forms and
falls in the rains of the year in which it flowered will stand a fair
chance of germinating.
Any observed extension, before or after the periods given here can be
entered by extending the lines to correspond and suit the particular
case.
TABLE OF FLOWERING SEASONS.