83 BAUHINIA ANGUINA. 
Nag-fut (snake charm,) the vernacular name in Silhet 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This is the most extraordinary as well as one of the most 
extensive ramblers I have met with. It is a native of the moun- 
tainous tracts in the vicinity of Silhet, Chittagong, &c. and the most 
regularly serpentine ‘pieces of the stems, and large branches, 
are carried about by our numerous mendicants, to heep serpents off. 
Flowering about the end of the rains, and the seed ripen in the 
cool season. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Stems and large branches are. flat, being from four to six inches 
broad, and scarce half an inch thick ; when old the margins 
become double, like the letter Y or T, and pretty straight, 
whereas the body, or space between them is most regularly 
flexuose, with the flexures alternately convex and concave. 
Bark rather rough, and ill defined. Wood hard, but porous, 
and nearly white. Branches and branchlets bifarious, and 
regularly alternate, from the flexures just mentioned, 
Tendrils simple, or bifid, permanent. 
Leaves bifarious, alternate, petioled; on the older plants entire 
_ or nearly so, and round-cordate ; on young plants, and on 
the luxuriant shoots more or less bifid, with the lobes narrow, 
and taper much to their points ; 5-7-nerved, smooth on both 
sides ; from two to six inches each way. 
Panicles terminal, composed of long, simple racemes, of numerous, 
very small white flowers. 
Calyx cup-shaped, unequally 5-toothed. 
Petals five, obovate, short-clawed. 
Stamina only three, and all fertile. 
Germ short-pedicelled, oblong, inserted on the under margin of a 
large 2-lobed gland, which occupies the centre of the flower, 
one-celled, 2-seeded. Style short. Stigma simple. 
Legume oblong, thin, edges even, apex a small recurved point, 
both sides smooth, about two inches long, by one broad, one- 
celled. : 
Seeds one or two, two most common, oval, with am obtuse point 
on the anterior upper part, which is formed by the radicle, 
compressed, smooth. Integuments in the recent state single. 
Albumen in considerable quantity in the fresh seed, 
Embryo curved, kc. as in the order. 
286. CYNOMETRA POLYANDRA. 
Leaves pinnate. Branchlets floriferous. Flowers polyandrous. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Peing, the vernacular name in Sv/het, and the adjacent mountain 
forests, where it grows to be a very large, and useful timber tree. 
Flowering time March and April; and the seed ripen during the 
rains, viz. in July and August, and are eaten by the natives of the 
hilly countries where they grow. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Young shoots flexuose, round, and smooth. 
Leaves alternate,’ subsessile, abruptly-pinnate, about six inches 
CYNOMETRA POLYANDRA. , 84 
long. Leaflets two or three, rarely four pair, sessile, opposite, 
unequally-oblong, or broad-lanceolate, entire, emarginate, 
firm, and glossy : about three inches long, and from one to 
one and a-half broad. ; 
Stipules ensiform. 
Corymbs axillary, single, or in. pairs, sessile, simple, shorter than 
the leaves. Peduncles and. pedicele nearly equal in length, 
clothed with ferruginous down. 
Bractes from ovate, at the insertion of the pediceles and round the 
base of the common peduncles, to filiform on the pediceles. 
Flowers large, yellow. 
Calyx 4-leaved: leaflets opposite, rather unequal, oval, entire, thin, 
smooth, coloured, soon become reflexed. 
Petals five, lanceolar, nearly equal, inserted between the calyx 
and stamina, 
Filaments 40-60 ; rather longer than the petals, united into some- 
thing like a ring round the base of the pedicele of the germ. 
Anthers roundish. 
Germ pedicelled, superior, obliquely oblong, one-celled, and 
contains one, rarely two ovula, attached to the upper margin 
of its cell. Style, curved, but the direction alters according 
to the length of time the flower has been expanded. Stigma 
enlarged. 
Legume fleshy, 2-3 inches long, by about two broad, sub-semilunar 
tubercled, light brown, one-celled. 
Seed solitary, rarely two, sub-reniform, compressed. 
single, smooth, a little veined. . 
Albumen none. 
Integument 
Embryo conform to the seed. 
fugal. In short in all respects very like the legume, &c. of 
Cynometra cauliflora. Gert. sem. 2. p. 350. 
Radicle oblong, immersed, centri- 
287. STERCULIA ALATA. 
Leaves cordate, entire, 3-5 nerved. Racemes crowded about the 
ends of the branchlets, length of the petioles. Fodlicles subrotund. 
Seeds numerous, winged. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
A native of the countries immediately to the east of Bengal, 
where it grows to be a large, handsome, very ramous tree. 
Flowering time in the Botanic Garden, February and March, and 
the seed ripen about the close of the year. In the province of 
Chittagong the tree is called Buddh-narculla, which may be trans- 
lated Buddha's Coco-nut. Narikella being one of the Sanscrit names 
of the Coco-nut. In Sithet it is called Toolah, and there the seeds 
are said to be eaten by the natives as a cheap substitute for opium. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Trunk (in trees twenty-five years old, now growing in the Botanic 
Garden at Calcutta,) straight, tall, four feet above the ground 
three feet and a half in circumference. Bark quite smooth, 
and ash-coloured. Branehes numerous, toward the top of 
the tree ascending, below divaricate. In its native soil they 
arrive at a much greater size ; viz. ten feet in circumference, 
and above one hundred feet high. 
Leaves alternate, about the ends of the branchlets, petioled, 
