HELICTERES. 



long column that is urceolate and multifid at the apex, the fer- 

 tile ones mixed with some hair-like sterile filaments. Ovarium 

 on a long stalk. Styles 5, united at the base. Carpels 5, 

 1 -celled, many-seeded, dehiscing on the inside, sometimes 

 straight, usually twisted together spirally. Seeds without albu- 

 men : cotyledons spirally convolute. — Shrubs and trees, usually 

 clothed with stellate tomentum. Leaves simple, unequally cor- 

 date. Peduncles axillary, few-flowered. W. and A. 



277. H. Sacarolha Aug. de St. H.fl. us. t. 64. fi. bras. i. 276. 

 — Common in Brazil. (Sacarolha, Rosea paras malas.) 



Leaves roundish ovate, or sharply ovate, hardly cordate, serrate, 

 toothed, covered with rufous down. Petals narrow, hardly longer than 

 the calyx. Stamen-tube octandrous, twice as long as the calyx. 

 Carpels but little twisted. — A decoction of the roots administered in 

 Brazil in venereal complaints. 



ADANSONIA. 



Calyx without bracteoles, deciduous, 5-partite. Petals 5, 

 united almost to the middle. Urceolus of stamens dilated and 

 expanded upwards. Style very long. Stigmas many, stellate. 

 Capsule woody, indehiscent, 10-celled; cells many-seeded, filled 

 with a farinaceous pulp enveloping the seeds. A spreading 

 large tree. Trunk thick, spongy. Leaves digitate, with 3 

 leaflets on the young plant, and 5-7 on the adult. Flowers on 

 long axillary solitary pedicels, large, white, with purplish anthers. 

 W. and A. 



278. A. digitata Linn. sp. pi. 960. Cav. diss. v. 298. t. 15. 

 Lam. illustr. t. 588. DC. prodr. i. 478. W. and A. i. 60. 

 Bot. Mag. t. 2791 and 2792. — A. Baobab Gcertn. ii. t. 135. 

 Baobab Alpin. cegypt. 66. t. 67. — Senegal, Sierra Leone, 

 (Lalo.) 



A tree of moderate elevation, but whose trunk is of vast thickness, 

 from 20 to 30 feet in diameter, soon dividing into branches of great size, 

 and bearing a dense mass of leaves, which are digitate, quinate, gla- 

 brous, petiolated ; leaflets elliptical, scarcely acuminated, veined : petiole 

 cylindrical, downy. Flowers axillary, solitary, very large, pendent. 

 Peduncle 4-6 inches long, terete, pubescent, with about 2 linear-lan- 

 ceolate bracts near the top ; calyx very large, cup-shaped, externally 

 green and pubescent, within pale and silky, cut into 5, large, revolute 

 segments : its substance thick, and somewhat coriaceous. Petals 5 

 spreading, at length deflexed, white, roundish, waved, faintly striated. 

 Tube of the stamens long, thick, united to the base of the petals, ter- 

 minated by very numerous, spreading, afterwards recurved filaments, 

 each bearing a 1-celled anther, of a reddish-brown colour. Ovary ovate, 

 silky, tapering upwards into a very long, thickish, filiform style, which is, 

 in age, bent down at an angle : stigma of 7 to 10, spreading, pubescent 

 rays. Fruit, a large, oblong or obovatc, indehiscent, down)', pericarp ; 

 8 or 10-celled; but in adry state, the partitions seem to be only formed 

 139 



