Rân undi, sweet, i.e.. godi undi, und (Koncan); Punnág, suringi (Mar.); Ráti-nág-kesar (Guz.); Nágap-pu, nagashâp-pu, nágésar-pu, (the flowers), (Tam); Sura-poona (Tel); Wanai, laringi (male), púne female', suringi. gardundi (Kan.); Seráya (Malay.)
Habitat: — Forests of the Western Peninsula, from Canara to the Concan.
A large evergreen tree, young branches terete, youngest 4-gonous — "Bark reddish-brown, ¼in. thick, exuding a red gum. Wood red., hard, close and even-grained. Pores moderately broad, very numerous, the distance between them equal to or less than, the diameter of the pores. Annual rings marked by a dark line. Lines of soft texture numerous, but indistinct. Numerous resin-ducts in radial long cells, which appear as shining lines on a horizontal, and black points on a vertical section " (Gamble). Leaves 5-9 by 2-2½in., thickly coriaceous, dark green, base rounded, mid-rib stout, prominent, veins few, indistinct, very slender, united by innumerable venules, which give the dried leaf a very beautifully lacunose appearance; petiole short, stout, ¼in. Flower-buds globose, used to dye silk. Flowers highly fragrant, in dense fascicles. Male and bisexual, ⅔in. diam., on nodes clothed with subulate bracteoles in the axils of fallen leaves, or on the old wood. Pedicels 1 in. slender. Calyx bursting in 2 valves, reflected during the flowering. Petals 4, acute, thin, deciduous, white, tinged yellowish red, almost orange. Stamens many; Style subulate, Sitgma broad, discoid. Fruit obliquely ovoid, pointed, 1 in. long, tipped by the hard pointed style, stipitate, I-seeded. "Flowers often hermaphrodite, and used for dying silk" (Beddome). Flowering time January, to March, in the Konkan forests.
Part used : —The flower-buds. Fruit edible, when ripe, sweet, refreshing.
Uses: — The flower-buds possess astringent and aromatic properties, and are sometimes prescribed medicinally (Dymock.)
The flowers are stimulant and carminative. They are useful in some forms of dyspepsia and in hæmorrhoids. (MOODEEN SHERIFF.)
