Pterospermim. monadelphia dodecandria. 159 



K7/riiikara, the Sanscrit name. 



Benx). Kwii?/k-clian»pa, 



1 cannot say where the tree is iudig-enous; in Bengal, it is 

 found in the gardens only, and is yet but twenty-five or 

 thirty feet high ; but seems to be naturally a very large tree. 

 Flo\verin<>- time, the beginning of the hot season. 



Trunk short, tolerably straight. Branches spreading, but 

 not near so numerous as in P. suberifolhnn. Bark smooth, 

 light ash-coloured. Leaves petioled, alternate, bifarious, pel- 

 tate, oval, repand, when young covered with much stellate 

 down, as is every tender part of the tree, the same as in P. 

 suberijolhim ; when full-grown, upper side is smooth, and the 

 underside remarkal)Iy hoary; length from eight to twelve 

 inches. Petioles round. Stipules many-cleft, caducous. 

 Peduncles axillary, very short, one or two-flowered. Bractes 

 many-cleft, like the stipules, /^lowers very large, pure 

 white and fragrant. Calyx as in P. snherijoliiim. Petals 

 obliquely wedge-shaped. Ste7n, pistil, &c. as in the genus. 

 Germ as in the ripe fruit, only each of the five cells is nearly 

 divided into two, by a membrane, which is not visible w hen 

 ripe. Capsule ligneous, five-seeded, oblong-, fully six inches 

 long and about three in diameter, covered with a coarse 

 dark brown, mealy substance, five-celled, five-valved. Seeds 

 about twenty in each cell, attached in two rows to the inner 

 edge of the triangular valves, obliquely oval, compressed ; 

 from the upper end, a large brown, membranaceous, thin 

 wing rises. Integument single, smooth, brown. Perisperm 

 rather gelatinous, in small quantity, entering into the vari- 

 ous foldings ol the cotyledons. Embryo conform to the seed, 

 nearly erect, pure white. Cotyledons two, large, very thin, 

 variously folded or wrinkled. Radicle cylindric, inferior, 

 its apex immediately opposite to the umbilicus of the seed. 



The flowers, like those of P. snberij'oliuni, render water 

 gelatinous. 



