Semecarpus
(from semeion, a mark, and karpos, a fruit; the black, acrid juice of the nut is used by the natives for marking cotton cloths). ORD. Anacardiaceae. A genus comprising about a score species of stove, evergreen trees, inhabiting tropical Asia, and especially abundant in Ceylon. Flowers small; calyx five-cleft, the segments imbricated, deciduous; petals five, spreading, imbricated; stamens five; panicles terminal or lateral, branched, bracteate. Nuts or drupes reniform. Leaves alternate, simple, coriaceous, on simple petioles. The only species introduced requires culture similar to Anacardium (which see).
S. Anacardium (Anacardium). Kidney Bean of Malacca fl. greenish-yellow, disposed in a terminal, tomentose panicle. July and August. l. oblong, rather blunt, beneath glaucous and more or less covered on the nerves with scabrous down h. 50ft. East Indies (on mountains), 1824. (B. F. S. 166.)
S. A. cuneifolium (cuneate-leaved). l. wedge-shaped and acuminate at base, blunt at apex.