XXV. MALVACEtE. 119 



Cultivated in parts of tlie Deccan. but more extensively in Bengal, Central India, 

 Rajpootana and the N.W. Provinces, as a field crop. Tlie cotton is known commer- 

 cially as " 13engals." 



14. ADANSONIA, Linn. 



Trees with a low trunk of great diameter. Leaves digitate ; leaflets 

 3-9 ; quite entire. Pedicels axillary, l-flowered. Involucral bracts 2. 

 Flowers large, pendulous. Calyx ovoid or oblong, deeply 5-fid, silky- 

 villous within. Petals 5. 8tauiinal-tube dividing above into numerous 

 lougish l-autheriferous filaments ; anthers re uit'orm. Ovary 5-1 0-eelled; 

 cells many-ovuled ; style shortly divided at the apex into as many 

 spreading stigmatic branches as there are cells to the ovary. Pruit 

 oblong, woody ; cells packed with farinaceous pulp. Seeds reniform, 

 nestiug in pulp ; hilum lateral ; testa thick; albumen thin, membranous ; 

 embryo curved. Cotyledons much contortuplieate, enclosing a slightly 

 curved radicle. — Disteib. Species 2, one of which is African, the other 

 Australian. 



L Adansonia digitata, Linn. Sp. PI. (1753) p. 1190. Trunk of 

 great diameter at base, rapidly narrowing upwards. Leaves deciduous, 

 glabrous ; leaflets 2-5 in. long, obovate-obloug, acute or obtuse ; petioles 

 up to 6 in. long, villous ; petiolules 0-i in. long. Pedicels reaching 8 in. 

 long, softly hairy. Calyx tawny-tomentose outside, grey silky-villous 

 within, divided below the middle ; lobes 2 in. long, oblong-lanceolate. 

 Ovary densely villous ; style up to 4 in. long, lower part villous. PL 

 B. L V. 1, p. 348 ; Grrah. Cat. p. 16 ; Dalz. & Gribs. Suppl. p. 9 ; 

 K. Schum. in Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzeuf. v. 3, part 6, p. 59, fig. 28 ; 

 Talb. Trees, Bomb. p. 20; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 11 (1897) 

 p. 128; Watt, Diet. Eeou. Prod. v. 1, p. 105. — Flowers: May-.Tune. 

 The Baobab or Monkej^-bread tree. Vern. Gorak-amla ; Gorak- 

 cMnch. 



The tree is not indigenous to India, but has been planted in a few 

 places in the Bombay Presidency. It is supposed to have been intro- 

 duced from Africa by Arabian traders. The fruit is used medicinally by 

 the natives, who esteem it cooling ; the leaA'es are eaten with their food, 

 and are supposed to restrain excessive perspiration {OraJiam). 



There are several trees on the so-called Island of Karauja in Bombay harbour, 

 and a tree, celebrated in Meadows Taylor's romance of Tara, as the tree under which 

 executions used to be held when the Mahomedrtus were in power at Bijapur, still exists 

 at that place. — Distrib. Endemic in tropical Africa. 



15. BOMBAX, Linn. 



Trees, often lofty. Leaves digitate ; leaflets 3-9, subentire. Pedicels 

 axillary or subterminal, solitary or clustered, l-flowered. Petals 5, 

 narrow or obovate, often pubescent. Calyx cup-shaped, truncate or 

 irregularly 2-5-lobed. Stamens indefinite, inserted at the b:ise of the 

 calyx, aduate to the petals, united into 5 bundles opposite to the petals. 

 Ovary 5-celled ; cells many-ovuled ; style clavate, 5-gonous or shortly 

 5-tid. Capsule loculicidally 5-valved ; cells very densely woolly within. 

 Seeds obovoid or subglobose, polished or opaque ; albumen thin ; coty^ 



