437 



The bark of the trunk and older branches is about nine lines thick, 

 of an ash-grey colour, smooth to the touch, and having a shining ap- 

 pearance, as if varnished ; that on the younger branches is greenish 

 and somewhat hairy. The wood is soft, white, and extremely light, 

 being very little heavier than cork. In the Bombay Monthly Times 

 are given the results of carboniz- 

 ing seven different sorts of wood, 

 including that of the Adansonia. 

 The weight per cent, of charcoal 

 yielded by each is as follows. — 

 Adansonia, 33; lignum vitae, 26*4; 

 mahogany, 25 ; oak, 22 ; beech, 

 19; ash, 17; Scotch fir, 16 : so 

 that the lightest wood presents the 

 anomaly of yielding 6 6 per cent, 

 of charcoal more than the heaviest. 



The leaves are very similar in 

 general appearance to those of the 

 horse-chesnut, being somewhat 

 orbicular in outline, and divided 

 into several elliptical lobes, which 

 are entire at the margin, and vary 

 in number from three to seven. 

 They are alternate, and supported 

 by a petiole, at the base of which 

 are two small stipules; these are 

 said by Adanson to fall off as soon 

 as the leaves expand ; they are, 

 however, represented in his figure. 

 The leaves of very young trees are 

 undivided and nearly sessile ; the 

 digitated leaves first make their 

 appearance when the young plant 



is about a foot high. The figures Fruit o/ the Baobab. 



e — i, on the opposite page repre- '^^^ ^°'''®'' ^^''''°° ^^°"^^ ^\^ arrangement of the 

 sent the different forms of the leaves; the lobes of the fully developed 

 leaves {i) are fi-om four to six inches long and two or three inches wide. 

 The flowers of the Baobab, as might be expected from the size of 

 the tree, are very large. The flower-bud (fig. a ) is globose, and 

 nearly three inches in diameter ; when fully expanded the flowers are 

 usually about six inches in diameter. There arc generally two or 



