On Glutoxylon burmense from Hailakandi in Assam with critical remarks on the fossil woods of Glutoxylon Chowdhury

Abstract

Fossil wood of Gluloxylon burmense (Hold.) Chowdhury is described here from a new locality of Hailakandi in district Cachar, Assam. A critical review of the hitherto described species of the genus Gluloxylon is made, based on an exhaustive study of the modern woods of Glula and Melanorrhoea.

Some fossil woods from Tipam Sandstone of Assam and Nagaland

“…The fossil woods of Koompassia are also known from the Neogene of Bengal and Malayan Peninsula (Kramer, 1974; indicating its wider distribution during that time. Like Koompassia, a few other elements, viz., Dryobalanops (Awasthi, 1971;Schweitzer, 1958), Anisoptera (Prakash & Tripathi, 1970b), Gluta (Prakash & Tripathi, 1969b;Prakash, 1973), Swintonia (Prakash & Tripathi, 1969a;, Ajzelia•lntsia (Prakash, 1973;Prakash & Tripathi, 1975), Sindora (Lalitha & Prakash, 1980), etc., known from the Neogene sediments of India, Mynmar and Malaysia are now confined to Mynmar and Malayan region where they still grow luxuriantly in the tropical evergreen forest. None of these genera has so far been found in Indian Palaeogene sediments.…”

A fossil wood of Gluta L. (Anacardiaceae) from the Early Eocene sediments of Gujarat, western India

“…Later on, he merged G. assamicum to G. burmense (Holden) Chowdhury, along with many other genera and species (Chowdhury, 1952). Prakash and Tripathi (1969) emended the diagnosis of Glutoxylon while reporting G. burmense from Hailakandi, Assam. They observed that the two genera, i.e.…”

“…As the two genera are taxonomically and anatomically very similar, Gluta has the priority over Melanorrhoea. Therefore, the organ genus Melanorrhoeoxylon Prakash & Tripathi (1976) became synonym to the earlier known genus Glutoxylon (Chowdhury) Prakash & Tripathi (1969). Consequently, the two known species of Melanorrhoeoxylon, M. cacharense Prakash & Tripathi (1976) and M. garbetanse Roy & Ghosh (1981) were renamed as Glutoxylon cacharense (Prakash & Tripathi) and G. garbetanse (Roy & Ghosh) by Guleria (1984).…”

Occurrence of Anacardiaceous woods in the Tertiary of Western India

“…This species was further reported by Chowdhury and Tandon (1952), and Ghosh and Taneja (1961) from the Tertiary beds of Midnapur District, West Bengal and Tripura respectively. Prakash and Tripathi (1969) emended the diagnosis of Glutoxylon Chowdhury (1936) while reporting G. burmense from a new locality of Hailakandi in Cachar District of Assam. Further, on the basis of their study of living woods of Gluta and Melanorrhoea they observed that the woods of these two genera can be divided into two groups.…”