30 XII. MALVACEAE. [Adansonia 



indehiscent, filled with pulp, mealy when dry; cotyledons very much 

 folded, enclosing the radicle ; albumen thin. 





1. A. digitata, Linn, j Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 164 ; W. & A. Prodr. 

 60 ; Bot. Mag. t. 2791/2 Baobab or Monkey-bread tree. Vern. Gorah- 

 imli. (Kalp, braksh, near Ajmere.) 



Leaves on petioles as long as leaflets ; leaflets generally 5 or 7, lanceo- 

 late or obovate, acuminate, long-attenuate at base, smooth above and 

 downy, beneath. Peduncle axillary, tomentose, often very long, more than 

 1 2 in. The structure of the fruit-bearing peduncle is curious, it has 5 dis- 

 tinct masses of ligneous tissue, each enclosing pith. Flowers pendulous. 

 Calyx thick coriaceous, outside tomentose, inside thickly covered with 

 long silky hairs. Petals white, obovate, broadly unguiculate. Staminal 

 tube thick, longer than the free portion of filaments ; anthers long, linear, 

 contorted. Ovary ovoid, silky-tomentose, tapering into a long filiform 

 style, which is bent downwards after flowering. Fruit pendulous, a large 

 downy oblong-obovoid capsule 8-12 in. long, when dry filled with tough 

 stringy fibres and a mealy, slightly acid substance, in which the kidney- 

 shaped, brown hard shining seeds are immersed. 



Indigenous in tropical Africa (the village-tree, or place of assembly in the 

 highlands of Eastern Africa). Originally introduced into India by Arab traders 

 and cultivated in many places in the Peninsula, Bengal, and Central India. It 

 grows near Ajmere and in the North-West, not in the Panjab. Leafless during 

 the dry season. Fl. in May and June ; the new leaves appear with or soon 

 after the flowers. 



A large tree, attaining 60 or 70 ft., remarkable for its disproportionately thick 

 trunk, which is often irregularly shaped, rapidly tapering upward, soon divid- 

 ing into large limbs, the lower frequently spreading horizontally with drooping 

 extremities. At Deogarh in the Central Provinces are three trees, measuring re- 

 spectively 16, 22, and 40 ft. in girth, and trees of much larger girth exist else- 

 where. Bark of boughs and trunk thick, hard, grey or reddish brown, partially 

 cut into irregular plates ; inner bark fibrous. The Baobab was formerly sup- 

 posed to attain a greater age than any other known tree. Adanson estimated 

 the age of trees 30 ft. diameter in Senegambia at 5150 years, and Humboldt 

 called the Baobab the oldest organic monument of our planet. This, however, 

 seems to be erroneous. In India, certainly, it is a fast-growing tree. Roxburgh 

 states that the largest of the trees in the Calcutta Botanic Garden was then 

 (early this century) about 25 years old, with an irregular, short, subcorneal 

 trunk, 18 ft. in circumference, from 4 to 5 ft. above ground. And recent in- 

 formation from Dr Kirk, H.M.'s Consul at Zanzibar, seems to show that the 

 huge Baobabs of Africa are not of the vast age usually attributed to them. 



The wood is light, soft and porous, made into rafts to support fishermen in 

 tanks. On the western coast the dry fruit is used as floats for fishing-nets. 

 Cordage and paper are made of the bark, and in Africa the pulp of the fruit is 

 used for preparing an acid beverage, and the leaves, dried and powdered, are 

 mixed with food as a condiment. It is a useful tree, which thrives well in 

 most parts of India, and its cultivation should be encouraged. 



3. BOMBAX, Linn. 

 Trees with digitate leaves. Calyx cup-shaped, truncate, or splitting into 

 3 to 5 lobes. Staminal tube short, split into 5 or more bundles, divided 



