SECTION 3 



CHAPTER XV. 



BEAUTIFUL FLOWERING AND FOLIAGE TREES OF 

 THE TROPICS 



SUITABLE FOR Low OR MEDIUM ELEVATIONS 

 FLOWERING TREP:S : 



[S=SIXHALESE ; 7'= TAMIL.] 



Properly speaking, all trees are /lowering trees, that is, they 

 normally produce flowers, whether these be showy or inconspicuous; 

 but, for practical purposes, only such as may come under the 

 term commonly understood as "flowering trees" are here included. 

 For trees whose beauty consists chiefly in their form of foliage, 

 see Ornamental Foliage Trees. Many of the following species, 

 however, combine to a large extent both beauty of foliage and 

 flowers. Some flowering trees are deciduous and develop their 

 floral display when devoid of leaves (e.g., Red Cotton Tree, or 

 Bombax), while others are in their full glory of foliage and blossom 

 simultaneously, as the Amherstia, Spathcdea, etc. Flowering trees 

 in the tropics may be employed for useful as well as for ornamental 

 purposes, as (when suitable kinds are available) for planting for 

 shade in thoroughfares, parks, or pleasure grounds. It is asserted, 

 with sound reason, that the planting of bright flowering trees 

 around bungalows situated in lonely districts and surrounded by 

 monotonous plantations, would go far to relieve the depressing 

 effect often inseparable from such situations. 



Flowering trees for street-planting, etc. An important quality 

 of a flowering tree is its suitableness for planting in public thorough- 

 fares. For this purpose it should obviously be an ever-green, or 

 at least have the habit of developing young foliage soon after the 

 shedding of the old leaves. Peltophorum fernigincinn and Inga 

 Saman ("Rain Tree") for example, answer this purpose admirably. 

 If the name of the tree employed is such as to lend itself to use as 



