66 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



illustration is copied from nature, from a specimen growing in my 

 own garden at Thana when in full bloom and fresli. Hooker 

 mentiona Strohilauthes furpursas,?, growing in Cejlon {Vide p. 183, 

 DeCandolle's Prodromus, P. XI., under StroUlanthes asperrimus.) 



Calyx — -Persistent, | inch long; in fruit often exceeding even 

 an inch; deeply quinquipartite; segments or lobes often free down 

 to the base, oblong or acuminate, tough^ covered with soft hair, 

 greenish or yellowish-white. Segments become tougher and stiffer 

 as they grow older. 



Corolla. — -Delicate, 1^ to 2 inches long, subequally five-lobed; 

 glabrous without; very hairy— softly so —within. 



Stamens. — Didyuamous inserted on the corolla; filaments hairy 

 downwards; anther4obes brightyellow, two-celled; included. 



Pistil. — Glabrous, elevated on a scarlet or deep -yellow con- 

 spicuous globular disc of the size of a millet seed; style filiform, 

 white, slightly bifid, if at all divided. 



Fruit. — A capsule two-celled, 1 inch long, ^ inch broad ° cori- 

 aceous; obovate; loculicidal; valves elastically recurved, carrying 

 the seeds on each half of the capsule. 



Seeds. — Three or four in each half of the capsule; ^ inch long, 

 roundish or ovoid, covered over with fine soft down. 

 Testa. — Membranaceous . 



The tree flowers from June to September. Th-e specimen I 

 have described threw out flowers in my garden, even when very 

 young, from July to September. The idea that, this plant flowers 

 only once in seven years is a rural myth. The stem of the plant 

 is an article of domestic economy in rural and even town life. 

 The stem of the plant is cut down when about 6-8 feet long 

 for making the mud-'plastered walls of our rural and town huts 

 and homes. It takes each stem about three years to grow to that 

 height, and in the forest it does not flower until fairly grown. The 

 impression, therefore, prevails that it only flowers once in 

 seven years. The fact is when once the plant has flowered, i.e., 

 has grown sufficiently big to be cut down for economic purposes, 

 it is cut down and sold in the bazaars as an article of commerce. 

 The result is, until another plant grows of sufficiently large size in 

 the same place from the same root, for mark you, the stem is 



