Rám-phal (Bomb. Deck., Mar., Guj., Kan.); Rámsitá or rámsitu-plam (Tam.); Rámá-pandu, rámáphalam or rámá-chandar pandu(Tel.).
English Names:—The Bullock's Heart, or true Custard Apple of the West Indies.
Habitat:—A small tree, naturalised in India, occurring in Bengal, Burma and South India.
A large tree often growing 20-40 ft. Leaves oblong or oblong-lanceolate, quite glabrous, smooth or roughish beneath; 5-8 by 1½-2 in., base acute; petiole ½ in. Flowers 2-3 together on lateral peduncles. Sepals 3, small, valvate. Petals 3, narrow, oblong, thick. Fruit subglobose, roughish outside with pentagonal areoles; tawny-coloured when ripe.
Much cultivated in the Bombay gardens. A native of the West Indies quite naturalized.
Parts used:—Bark and fruit.
Uses:—The bark is said to be a powerful astringent, and to be much used as a tonic by the Malays and Chinese. The fruit is reported to be used in the West Indies and by the natives of America, as an anti-dysenteric and vermifuge. (Watt's Dictionary, Vol: I. p. 259).
36. Bocagea Dalzelii, Hk. f. and Thoms, H.F.BR.I., I. 92.
Syn.—Sageræa laurina, Dalz.
Vern.— Sajeri. Kochrik. Harkinjal (Marâthi). Audi (Bombay).
Habitat.—Forests of the Konkan and Travancore.
A middle-sized, evergreen, glabrescent tree. Leaves shining, coriaceous, thick, 5-9 by 1½-2 in., narrow, oblong, acute or obtuse; base rounded or acute. Petiole ¼ in. Flowers white, 2-sexual, ¼-⅓ in. diam; crowded in fascicles of 1-15 on woody tubercles. Pedicels ¼-⅓ in. Bracteoles several, scaly basal. Sepals orbicular, distinct, slightly imbricate; outer petals ½ in. broad, ovate, larger but not twice the size of the inner.
