Butea. DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA, 245 
toothed, covered with the same dark green down that the ra- 
cemes and pedicels are covered with, Corol ; bannerreflect- 
ed, ovate, pointed, very little longer than the wings. Wings 
ascending, lanceolate, the length of the keel. Keel two-part- 
ed, ascending, large, semilunate, the length of the wings and 
banner, Filaments one and nine, ascending in a regular 
semi-circle, about as long as the corol, _Anthers equal, li- 
near, erect. Germ short, thick, pedicelled, lanceolate, downy. 
Style ascending, a little longer than the filaments, Stigma 
small, glandular. Legume pedicelled, pendulous, linear, thin, 
downy, about six inches long. Seed one, lodged near the 
point of the legume, oval, much compressed, smooth, brown, — 
about an inch and a half long, and about one broad. 
From natural fissures, and wounds made in the bark of 
this tree, during the hot season, there issues a most beautiful 
red juice, which soon hardens into a ruby-coloured, brittle, 
astringent gum; but it soon loses its beautiful colour, if ex- 
posed to the air. To preserve the colour, it must be gathered 
as soon as it becomes hard, and kept closely corked up ina 
bottle. 
This gum held in the flame of a candle swells, and burns 
away slowly without smell or the least flame into a coal, and 
then into fine light white ashes... Held in the mouth it soon 
dissolves; its taste is strongly, but simply astringent. Heat 
does not soften it, but rather renders it more brittle. Pure 
water dissolves it perfectly; the solution is of a deep, clear 
red colour, It is in a great measure soluble in spirits, but this 
solution is paler, and a little turbid ; the watery solution also 
becomes turbid when spirit is added, and the spirituous more 
clear by the addition of water ; diluted vitriolic acid renders 
both solutions turbid, and caustic ; vegetable alkali changes 
the colour of the watery solution to a clean, deep, fiery blood 
red.* The spirituous, it also deepens, but in a less degree, 
* With an alkalized decoction of this gum, I tried to dye cot. 
_ ton cloth prepared with alum, with sugar of lead, and with a so- 
