Black Calabash 



839 



attaining a maximum height of about 7 meters and a trunk diameter of 1.5 

 dm. 



The branches are long, slender, spreading and drooping, the tree irregularly 

 round-topped. The bark is about 3 mm. thick, brownish or gray, divided into 

 thin scales. The twigs are stout, angular, somewhat enlarged at the nodes and 

 creamy white to dark gray. The leaves are thick and leather}^ oblong to oblong- 

 obovate, 7 to 15 cm. long, abruptly pointed at the apex, narrowed to the stout, 

 thick, glandular leaf-stalk, entire and thickened on the margin, dark green with 

 deeply impressed midrib above, a little paler and prominently veined beneath. 

 The flowers are on stalks 2 to 8 cm. long; the calyx is somewhat shorter than the 

 corolla-tube, 2-cleft, the lobes 2.5 to 4 cm. long; the corolla is leathery, purple, or 



Fig. 763. Black Calabash. 



whitish and banded, tubular-funnelform, from 5 to 6 cm. long, the veiny tube 

 indented below the Umb, which is obhque with a reflexed, shghtly 2-lobed upper 

 Hp, the lower Hp somewhat 3-lobed; the stamens are in 2 pairs of unequal height; 

 the ovary is oblong-conic, contracted into the long, exserted style, which is ter- 

 minated by 2 flat, ovate stigmas. The fruit, which is suspended on stout, thickened 

 stalks 4 to 6 cm. long, is dark green, oblong to globose, 6 to 10 cm. long, blunt 

 at each end and obscurely 4-ridged; its shell is about 1.5 mm. thick and easily 

 crushed; the numerous seeds are about 2 cm. broad, somewhat shorter, 2-lobed 

 and brown. 



The wood is hard, dense, brown or orange-brown; its specific gravity is about 

 0.63. This species has been confused with Crescentia ovata Burmann, an Asiatic 

 tree. 



