4J0 JOURNAL. BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



pound walls. The graceful Cane-palm, Calamus rotang — and the 

 glossy -leaved apple-scented Artahotnjs odoratissima — must also be 

 mentioned as 1'avourite creepers, while the elephant creeper is chiefly 

 remarkable for its rapid growth. Among the trees in our gardens, 

 the Grold-mohur- tree {Poineiaita ivgia) has no rival as to gaudiness 

 of its bright red flowers, and gracefulness of its dense foliage, 

 though no tree is more ugly than this when destitute of leaves. The 

 mango-tree, which rarely in Bombay is seen to assume that perfect 

 shape by which it at once attracts the attention in the jungle, or 

 along the country roads, is still very attractive by the beauty and 

 varying colour of its leaves, in which tints of pink, violet, mauve, 

 coppered, and all shades of green are of no rare occurrence, while 

 the individually inconspicuous flowers when covering the tree with 

 their masses are very effective. The Spathodea campanulata with its 

 large brilliant scarlet flowers in great clusters is still too rare in 

 Bombay gardens. The Indian Laburnum (Cassia fistula) with its 

 large drooping sprays of pure yellow flowers, is a most beautiful 

 object, far surpassing the English Laburnum in beauty. The 

 Lagerstreemias with their large fringed mauve, pink, or white 

 flowers, are universally admired, but are far surpassed in gracefulness 

 by the Lagerstrcemia parvifiora of our hills, which I hope ere long to 

 see commonly established in Bombay gardens. The Sterculia t'.rens 

 with its large hand-shaped leaves is not a bad substitute for our 

 Plane-trees at home. The Mic/ie/ia champaca, the sacred pila 

 " Champa," is famed for its strong-scented yellow flowers, which are 

 much used by native women for adornment of their hair, thus occa- 

 sionally serving a double purpose, that of ornament and that of a 

 powerful insecticide. The Plumieria acuminata, another " Champa," 

 with its handsome strong-scented white, yellow, and often pinkish - 

 tinted flowers, is a general favourite. A dark red-flowered, scentless 

 kind has lately been introduced. The most striking tree of our 

 gardens is perhaps the Lettuce-tree (Pisonia alba), which cannot fail 

 to attract attention by the splendid effect of its bright yellow foliage, 

 nowhere I believe so perfectly developed as in Bombay. The 

 Kurranj-tree (Pongaaiia glabra) reminds us very much of our beech- 

 trees at home, when producing its light green new foliage in the 

 hot weather. Bombay can only boast of a few handsome specimens 



