BUTEA. 



soft, greenish-purple down. Flowers papilionaceous, pendulous, nu- 

 merous, stalked, fascicled, very large, their ground colour a beautiful 

 deep red, shaded with orange and silver-coloured down, which gives 

 them a most elegant appearance. Pedicels round, about an inch long, 

 jointed near the apex, and covered with the same greenish, velvet-like 

 down. Bractes lanceolate, deciduous, one below the insertion of each 

 pedicel, and two smaller, pressing on the calyx. Calyx campanulate, 

 leathery, 2-lipped ; the upper lip large, scarcely emarginate ; the under 

 one 3-toothed, covered with the same dark-green down that the racemes 

 and pedicels are covered with. Vexillum reflexed, ovate, pointed, 

 very little longer than the wings ; wings ascending, lanceolate, the length 

 of the keel ; keel 2-parted, ascending, large, semilunate, the length of 

 the wings and vexillum ; filaments 1 and 9, ascending in a regular semi- 

 circle, about as long as the corolla. Anthers equal, linear, erect. 

 Ovary short, thick, stalked, lanceolate, downy. Style ascending, a 

 little longer than the filaments. Stigma small, glandular. Legume 

 stalked, pendulous, linear, thin, downy, about 6 inches long. Seed 1, 

 lodged near the point of thelegume, oval, much compressed, smooth, brown, 

 about li inch long, and about 1 broad. — Juice, which naturally exudes 

 from cracks and wounds in the bark, hardens into a most beautiful 

 ruby-coloured brittle astringent gum. It dissolves perfectly in water 

 and partially in spirit. Infusions of the flowers dye cotton cloth, pre- 

 viously impregnated with a solution of alum, of a beautiful bright yellow ; 

 a little alkali changes it to a deep reddish orange. Lac insects are 

 frequent on the small branches and petioles. Guibourt considers that 

 this plant produces the Cachou en masse or Cachou lucide ; but Mr. 

 Pereira doubts it. Med. gaz. xx. 103. 



528. B. superba JRoxb. cor. i. t. 22.^/7. ind. iii; 247. DC. 

 prodr. ii. 415. W. and A. i. 261. — Circar mountains. 



Root fusiform, very large. Stem twining, as thick or thicker than a 

 man's leg, woody, very long, running over large trees. Bark ash- 

 coloured, pretty smooth. Branches like the stem, but with a smoother 

 bark. Leaves alternate, terminal, remote, very large ; leaflets downy, 

 in other respects as in B. frondosa, but much larger ; the exterior one 

 is often about 20 inches long, and broad in proportion, the lateral ones 

 somewhat less. Racemes as in the former, but much larger. Flowers 

 also the same, only much larger, and more numerous. Calyx with the 

 divisions longer and much more pointed. Corolla the same. Legumes 

 and seed rather larger. — Sensible properties altogether the same as in 

 B. frondosa. 



PTEROCARPUS. 



Calyx 5-cleft, somewhat bilabiate. Corolla papilionaceous, 

 glabrous : keel-petals distinct or slightly cohering. Stamens 

 10, variously combined. Ovary long-stalked. Legume inde- 

 hiscent, irregular, somewhat orbicular, surrounded by a wing, 

 woody, and often rugose in the middle, 1-3-celled. Seeds soli- 

 tary in each cell, reniform. — Unarmed trees or shrubs. Leaves 

 unequally pinnated. Racemes axillary or forming terminal pani- 

 cles. W. and A. 

 255 



