coloured to dark brown. Wood pinkish white, turning dark-brown on exposure, moderately hard ; wavy concentric bands
of soft tissue alternating with darker coloured bands of firm tissue. Leaves 3-6in. long, rather large than broad, sometimes overlapping at the inner margins ; petiole l-l½in. long. Flowers deep-rose in paniculate or corymbose racemes ; pedicels 1/5-½in. long, tomentose ; buds obovoid or oblong, acute, strongly 5-ribbed. Calyx-tube 3/1-2/5in., long. Limb nearly twice as long, slit on one-side, 5-toothed at the apex. Petals reddish, l½-2in, long, oblanceolate, clawed, with a distinct midrib and fine straight lateral veins. Stamens usually 3, fertile,
slightly shorter than the petals ; staminodes filiform, of varying lengths, oblique. Pod 6-10in. by 3/5-4/5in., on a tomentose stipe, 3/5-1in. long, thick pointed, slightly falcate, greenish-purple, pubescent along the sutures, late in dehiscing. Seed 12-15 (KANJILAL).
Parts used : — The bark, root and flowers.
Uses : — The bark or root and flowers mixed with rice water, used as a maturant for boils and abscesses (T. N. Mukerji). A decoction of the astringent bark is recommended as a useful wash in ulcers (U. C. Dutt). The bark acts as an astringent in diarrhœa (Barren). The root carminative ; the flowers laxative. (WATT).
436. B. variegata, Linn., h.f.b.l, ii. 284, Roxb. 344.
Sans. : — Kovidâra ; Kanchanâra.
Vera. — Kachnâr, koliar, kurâl padrian, khwairaal, guriâl, gwiar, bariâl, kaniâr, kândan, khairwâl (H.) ; Rakta-kânchan (B); Kurmang (Mechi.) ; Singya (Kol.) ; Jingya (Santal ) ; Taki (Nepal) ; Rba (Lepcha) ; Kanchan, ragtâ kânchan (Mar.) ; Kânchan (Concan) ; Kovidâr (Bomb.) ; Segapu-munthari (Tam.) ; Kanchivalado (Kan ) ; Boraru (Uriya).
Habitat: — From the foot of the Western Himalayas and Sikkim, throughout India.
A middle-sized, deciduous, erect tree, with moderately stout, glabrescent branchlets. Bark grey, with vertical cracks. Wood greyish-brown, with irregular patches of harder and darker
