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NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



dieitate, with a number of folioles varying from tliree to nine. The 



Ml 



flowers, solitary or united in few-flowered cymes, are axillary or 

 terminal. 



Beside Bombacc are placed some very analogous genera. Brio- 

 dendron (fig. 168) has the same leaves, the same perianth, and the 



Adansonia digitata. 



Fig. 169. 



Flower (i). 



same fruit, but the floral receptacle is much more concave, and the 

 stamens are the same in number as the petals, with which they 

 alternate ; or they unite into bundles of two or three pieces only. 

 Seven or eight species are known, inhabiting equally Asia, Africa, 

 and tropical America. Chorma has also the perianth and the fruit of 

 Bombaw, with an androceum of five bundles, but these only separate 

 from each other at a great height, and below they form by their 

 union a long tube round the almost entirely superior ovary. This 

 tube is furnished on the exterior of its lower portion with five 

 projections, which have been considered as antherless stamens ; 

 and each of the branches at its apex bears two anthers similar to 

 those of Eriodendron and Bombax. The three known Chorisias are 

 fine trees of tropical America, with the same foliage as the preceding 

 genera. 



