43 i GMELINA ARBOREA. 
in circumference, four and a half feet above ground, and were 
high, ramous, and healthy in proportion. These were originally 
sent, at the desire of the late Marquis Cornwallis, from the Rajah- 
mudry Circar, where the Teak is reckoned superior to every other 
sort in India. It is from the seed’of these trees the plants have 
been reared, which are now so generally planted over Bengal. 
Since writing the above, Mr. Waddell, the East India Com- 
pany’s master builder in Bengal, has returned from thence to 
England ; and informs me, that in consequence of my having 
found a log of this timber resist the worm (Teredo navalis) so effec- 
tually, he fixed specimens of several sorts of timber considerably 
below low water mark, in the same river my experiment was made 
in, so that they were constantly under water. At the end of one 
year he took them up, and found the worm had attacked this sort, 
though in a less degree than some of the others. I have no doubt 
of Mr. Waddell’s accuracy ; and can only say that my own expe- 
riment and the result were exactly as I have stated. Whether 
Mr. W. made his experiment on wood equally old; or if it was 
the same sort, remains to be ascertained. 
247. BOMBAX HEPTAPHYLLUM. 
Linn. sp. pl. ed. Willden. 3. p. 732. 
Trunk and branches much armed. Leaves digitate. Stamens 
numerous, in two series, exterior series of five fascicles. Stigma 
five-cleft. 
Moul elavou. Rheed. mal. 8. p. 61, ¢. 52. 
Salmali, the Sanscrit name. 
Semel, or Semul, of the Bengalese, and Hindoos. 
Boorgha, of the Telingas. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Trunk straight, covered with innumerable, crowded, short, sharp 
conic prickles, as at a, of which b is a vertical section: the 
Bark is also very scabrous, and deeply cracked, is outwardly 
ash-coloured, inwardly red. Branches subverticelled, vari- 
ously bent, but generally in a horizontal direction, and 
armed like the trunk. 
Leaves alternate, long-petioled, digitate. 
Leaflets five, six, or seven, petioleted, broad-lanceolate, Jong, 
fine-pointed, entire, smooth on both sides, general length 
from 6 to 12 inches. 
Petioles longer than the leaflets, round, smooth. 
Petiolets short, channeled on the upper side. 
Stipules small, caducous. 
Flowers numerous, collected in fascicles at and near the extreme- 
ties of the then otherwise naked branchlets, subsessile, very 
large, bright lively red colour ; they contain a large portion 
of sweet liquid, which birds are fond of. 
Bractes small, caducous. 
Galyx cup-shaped, circumcised, of a thick leathery texture, inside 
covered with white, silky down; outside pretty smooth. 
Border in general obscurely three or four-parted; as the 
corol expands, these are often so much split, as to appear 
four, five, or more cleft; separating near the permanent 
base, which with the corol and stamina drop off in one body. 
BOMBAX HEPTAPHYLLUM. 44 
Corol of five, very distinct, oblong, first spreading, then recurved, 
contorted, smooth, deep red, fleshy, oblong petals, of about 
twice the length of the stamens. 
Stamens. Filaments in two series. The inner press on the style, 
and consist of five longer, and thicker; and ten shorter. Ex- 
terior series contain from 50 to 60, united into five distinct 
bodies; all these are united at the base into one fleshy enve- 
lope round the germ. Anthers incumbent, involute, reni- 
form ; of the five larger filaments of the interior series 
double ; on all the rest single. Pollen the colour of Scotch 
snuff. 
Pistil. Germ conical. Style longer than the stamina. Stigma, five- 
cleft ; divisions subulate, recurved. 
Capsule oblong, tapering equally towards each end, five-celled, 
five-valved, downy on the outside. 
Seeds numerous, obovate, smooth, except for a sharp cross-shaped 
ridge on one side; immersed in a very large quantity of very 
fine, silky wool; this wool does not adhere to the seeds, but 
rather seems to grow from the inside of the valves of the 
capsule. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This is one of the largest of our Indian trees, and is found 
almost every where. Over the northern Circars, near the moun- 
tains, they grow to a greater size than I have seen any where 
else, often about an hundred feet high, thick in the trunk, and 
ramous in proportion. Flowering time the end of winter, when 
the tree is totally destitue of leaves. The great numbers of very 
large bright red flowers, with which it is then covered, makes it 
remarkably conspicuous at a very great distance. 
The wood is white, light, and spongy, fit for very few pur- 
poses. In India the wool of the seeds is used to stuff beds and 
pillows with, and to put between the folds of quilted cloth. 
FLEMINGIA.* 
DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA. 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Calyx five-cleft. Banner striated. Sanne one and nine. Legume 
sessile, oval, turgid, two-valved, one-celled, containing two 
spherical seeds. 
248. FLEMINGIA STRICTA. 
Stems nearly simple, and straight. Leaflets broad-lanceolate, 
smooth. _ Racemes axillary, solitary, length of the petioles. 
Guidda of the Telingas. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Stems several from the same root, straight, with few straight, 
somewhat three-sided smooth branches. 
* So named in honour of Dr. John Fleming, President of the Honourable East India 
Company’s medical establishment in Bengal ; whose knowledge of the science of Botany 
justly demands this tribute. 
