Jdansonia.] xxv. Malvaceae (masters). 213 



Nile Land. Ethiopia, Kotscby ! Abyssinia, Dillon and Petit, Schimper. 



South Central. Lat. 23° S., Chapman and Baines ! 



Mozamb. Distr. Along the whole coast, Peters I Shupanga, Br. Kirk! 



This is the famous Baobab or Mon key-bread-tree, known also in India as the Cork-tree. 

 The trunk attains a height of 40-60 ft., while its diameter is no less than 30 ft. The 

 flowers are produced before the leaves. Its bark furnishes cordage, and the pulp of the fruit 

 is slightly acid and refrigerant. The Mozambique specimens have rather uarrower leaves 

 than those from other parts of Africa, and they are in some instances smooth on the under 

 surface. The flowers, too, are smaller than those of the tree grown elsewhere. Similar 

 variations occur in India. 



16. BOMBAX, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 210. 



Calyx cup-shaped, truncate or obscurely 3-5-lobed. Corolla 5-lobed. 

 Stamens pentadelphous below, each parcel placed opposite to a petal and di- 

 viding above into numerous filaments ; anthers 1-celled, not sinuous. Ovary 

 5-celled with many ovules in each cell. Style clavate, dividing at the apex 

 into 5 short stigmatic rays. Capsule woody, loeulicidally 5-valved ; valves 

 very downy. Seeds roundish. Cotyledons folded. — Tall trees with digitate 

 leaves. Flowerstalks axillary or terminal, solitary or clustered, 1-flowered. 



A genus having few representatives in tropical Africa and Asia, but more abundant in 

 America. 



1. B. Buonopozense, Beanv. Fl. Omar. ii. 42. t. 83. A large tree 

 with obscurely quadrangidar branches, covered by a loose tuberculate bark 

 and having here and there a few stout conical prickles hooked at the points 

 besides being marked by the cicatrices of the leaf and flowerstalks. Leaves 

 stalked, digitate ; stalks 3-6 in. long, cylindrical ; leaflets 5-7, oblong, at- 

 tenuate at the base, acuminate, apiculate, entire, smooth on both surfaces. 

 Pedicels solitary, axillary, about an inch in length, cylindrical, curved. Calyx 

 cup-shaped, entire, leathery, covered with a few stellate hairs on the outside 

 and thickly clothed with simple hairs within. Corolla scarlet, three or four 

 times longer than the calyx, of 5 oblong, obtuse, leathery lobes, which are 

 densely covered with steilate pubescence on the outside. Stamens penta- 

 delphous below, shorter than the corolla, each parcel dividing below the 

 middle into a great number of hairy filaments. Style clavate; stigmas 5, 

 radiate. 



Upper Guinea. Niger, Barter ! Sierra Leone, Miss Turner ! Senejrambia, Perrottet ! 



Dr. Hooker, in the ' Niger Flora,' 232, describes the leaves of a plant iu the Kew her- 

 Wiuin as possibly belonging to this species, but they are ciliate -serrate near the top, 

 lot entire, and do not correspond with Palisot's figure or with Perrottet's specimens iu 

 the British Museum. There is no evidence at present as to what species they properly be- 

 long. 



17. EBIODENDBON, DC. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 210. 



Calyx cup-shaped, 5-lobed. Staminal column divided at the apex into 5 

 divisions, each bearing 3 sinuous anthers. Ovary 5-celled; ovules nu- 

 merous. Style club-shaped, pentagonal. Capsule coriaceous, downy within. 

 Seeds obovoi'd, embedded in wool.— Spiny tree, with digitate leaves and large 

 axdlary or terminal rose-coloured or white flowers. 



