STERCULIA FCETIDA 51 



pines is to stuff the pillows with the cotton that it yields. The 

 leaves, pounded with a little water, yield a mucilaginous juice 

 highly prized by the natives as a wash for the hair, mixing it 

 with gogo. The root bark is emetic in dose of 1.25 grm. The 

 cotton yielded by this tree should be used for the same thera- 

 peutic purposes as that of gossypium, and being of an exceed- 

 ingly fine fiber it would give better results. The Filipinos 

 use it to treat burns and sores. I have often used it, being 

 careful always to impregnate it thoroughly with some antiseptic 

 solution. In the treatment of burns it has been my custom to 

 envelope the part in a thick layer of this cotton, after bathing 

 it with a tepid 1-2,000 solution of corrosive sublimate and 

 dusting with a very fine powder of boracic acid. 



BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION. A tree 40-50 high. Trunk 

 somewhat thorny, the branches horizontal, arranged in stars of 

 3-4. Leaves compound with 7 leaflets, lanceolate, entire, 

 glabrous. Flowers in umbels of 8 or more flowerets. No 

 common peduncle, the individual ones long. Calyx, 5 obtuse 

 sepals, slightly notched. Corolla, 5 fleshy petals, obtusely lan- 

 ceolate and bent downwards. Stamens 5. Anthers of irreg- 

 ular shape, peltate, with the borders deeply undulate. Stigma 

 in 5 parts. Pod 4-6' long, spindle-shaped. Seeds enveloped 

 in very fine cotton fiber. 



HABITAT. Exceedingly common in all parts of the islands. 

 Blooms in December. 



STERCULIACEJE. 



Sterculia Family. 



Sterculia foetida, L. (S. polypliilla, R. Br.; Clompanus 



major, Rumph.) 



NOM. VULG. Kalumpay, Tag.; Bagar, Hoc. 

 USES. A decoction of the leaves is used as a wash in sup- 

 purative cutaneous eruptions. The fruit is astringent and is 



