244 DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA. Butea. 



1. B.Jrondosa. Corom. pi. i. No. 21. Willd. m.p. 917. 



Arboreous. 



Sans. P^«lasa. 



Beng. P?<las. 



Erythriua monosperma. Lamarck. Encycl. ii. p. 388. 



Teling. Maduga. 



Plasa. lllieed. Mai. M.t.\Q and 17. 



A middle-sized, or rather a large tree, not very common on 

 the low land of the coast, but much more so among the moun- 

 tains, and still more in Bengal. Leaves deciduous, during 

 the cohl season; they come out again, with the flowers, about 

 the months of March and April ; seed ripe in June and July. 



Trunk generally crooked, covered with ash-coloured, 

 spongy, thick, scabrous bark ; the middle stratum of which 

 contains a red juice, hereafter to be mentioned. Branches 

 very irreg'ularly bent in various directions. Yoimy shoots 

 downy. Leaves alternate, spreading, ternate, from eight to 

 sixteen inches long. Leaflets emarginate, or rounded at the 

 apex, leathery, above shining, and pretty smooth; below 

 slightly hoary, entire, the pair are obliquely oval, from four 

 to six inches long, and from three to four and a half broad, the 

 exterior one obovate, and considerably larger than the lateral 

 ones. Common petioles round, when young downy, as long 

 as the leaflets. Stipules of the petioles small, recurved, dow- 

 ny, those of the leaflets subulate. Racemes terminal, axilla- 

 ry, and from tuberosities over the naked woody brancidets, 

 rigid, covered with a soft, greenish-purple down. Flowers 

 papilionaceous, pendulous, numerous, pedicelled, 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, articulated near the apex, and covered with the same 

 greenish, velvet-like down. Bractes lanceolate, caducous, one 

 below the insertion of each pedicel, and two smaller, pressing 

 on the calyx. Calyx campanulate, leathery, two-lipped ; the 

 'upper lip large, scarcely emarginate ; the n7ider one three- 



