50 MANGROVE SWAMPS 
garai). The wood is hard and heavy to very heavy; the sapwood 
2 to 4 centimeters thick, sometimes merging gradually into the 
darker heartwood, but often almost indistinguishable from it; 
the heartwood is pale dull red. or reddish brown, sometimes with 
very irregular, narrow but ill-defined, dark streaks. The grain 
is straight and the texture fine. Beautiful conspicuous silver 
grain occurs on radial sections. Logs check badly in seasoning, 
but sawn lumber seasons without much checking and warping 
if properly stacked under a roof. The wood is hard to saw, but 
otherwise easy to work. It is said to last well in wet situations, 
is rarely attacked by insects, and is said to resist teredos for 
as much as seven or eight years. It has much the same uses 
as that of the genus Rhizophora. 
The leaves of Bruguiera are usually leathery in texture, oblong, 
and entire. The flowers are rather large and are found in the 
axils of the leaves. The calyx is split into eight to fourteen 
lobes. The petals are oblong, and equal in number to the calyx- 
lobes, two-lobed or notched at the apex, embracing the stamens 
by pairs. There are sixteen to twenty-eight stamens. The 
ovary is two- to four-celled. The fruit is included in or joined 
to the calyx tube, is one-celled, one-seeded. The seed germinates 
on the tree. 
The different species of Brugwiera are readily distinguished 
either in flower or fruit except in the case of Bruguwiera conjugata 
and Bruguiera sexangula, which have forms intermediate in 
character between typical specimens of the two species. The 
flowers of Bruguiera conjugata and Bruguiera sexangula are 
large, 2.5 to 5 centimeters long; while those of Brugwera par- 
viflora and Bruguiera cylindrica are small and about a centimeter 
in length. The flowers of Brugwiera conjugata are typically 
red with the calyx divided into twelve to fifteen lobes; while 
the flowers of Bruguiera sexangula are usually yellow with the 
calyx divided into ten lobes. As the calyx-lobes of Bruguwiera 
are persistent, the fruits of these two species can be readily 
distinguished from those of the other two species of the genus 
by the long calyx-lobes, while the two species themselves can 
be separated according to the number of the lobes of the calyx. 
Bruguiera cylindrica and Bruguiera parviflora can easily be dis- 
tinguished by the fact that the inflorescences of Bruguiera cylin- 
drica bear two or three flowers, while those of Bruguiera 
parviflora have two to five flowers. The petals of Bruguwiera 
parviflora are yellow with a brown border at the tip and those 
of Bruguiera cylindrica white. The fruits of these two species 
are readily distinguished by the fact that in Bruguiera cylin- 
