166 MONADELPHIA DODECANDRIA. Bonibax. 



Bark sraootli, and thinly armed with conic-based prickles, 

 while young', green, then ash-coloured ; branches sub-verti- 

 celled, and spreading- horizontally like the stages of the com- 

 pound table called a dumb waiter; they are generally in 

 threes, and at all times destitute of prickles, and like the 

 trunk, covered uith smooth, ash-coloured bark. Leaves al- 

 ternate, petiolate, digitate. Leaflets short-petioled, generally 

 seven in number, though sometimes varying- from four to ten, 

 lanceolate, entire, and smooth on both sides, the interior by 

 far the smallest, being from one to two inches long, while the 

 exterior are two or three times longer. Petioles round, about 

 the length of the longest leaflets. Stipules small, caducous, 

 /^/oicers numerous, in fascicles, about the end of the branch- 

 lets, pretty large, of a dull white colour, peduncled, droop- 

 ing. Peduncles clavate, three, four, five, or more from the 

 axillary germ of the fallen leaf; one-flowered, round and 

 smooth. Calyx one-leaved, four or five-toothed; on the out- 

 side a little rugose, on the inside somewhat villous. Petals 

 five, oblong, spreading, villous on the outside, smooth within. 

 Filaments five, curved, smooth, rather shorter than the corol, 

 united at the base into a thick fleshy envelope for the germ. 

 Anthers large, consisting of two or three variously convolut- 

 ed lobes, with a double line of bright yellow pollen on the 

 exterior margin. Germ conical. Style as long- as the sta- 

 mens, much contracted near the base by the fleshy envelope, 

 formed by the united bases of the filaments, immediately 

 above it is much swelled, and considerably bent to one side. 

 Siiyina headed, obscurely five-lobed. Capsule (in our In- 

 dian plant) oblong, in size and shape like a smooth skinned 

 cucumber, when ripe somewhat ligneous, and not readily 

 opening- spontaneously, five-celled, five-valved, partitions 

 membranaceous. Seeds immerous, somewhat pear-shaped, 

 smooth, black, each involved in its own proper portion of 



carplum of tlie same plant, which he calls Ceiba peniandrus is also 

 HiUch too thick at the apex for our ladiau tree. 



