514 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATUnAL HTSTOnr SOOTETT, 1802. 



handsome and hardy tree as a remarkable garden and forest beauty. Then , ap:ain 

 our Tarwad( Cassia auriculata), Cassia Sumatrana so common in Bombay as a road- 

 side tree, and Cassia ferruginea growing beautifully in the Grant Medical College 

 gardens are remarkable for the large yellow or orange tinted panicles they throw 

 out when in full bloora. Tlie Cassias as a class may be said to be the prevailing 

 and persistent beauties of our Indian floral world. Tlie naturalized exotics 

 Poinciana pulcherrima (Shankasur) throwing out delicate bright yellow or o?ange 

 flowers on long green pedicels, and Poinciana reyia (Gulraohor) throwing out 

 copious axillary and terminal racemes of bright scarlet flowers mottled with white 

 and orange in profusion, are well known in our gardens. They need but be 

 mentioned and you will be at once reminded cf their exquisite beauty. 



The Mimosas are a distinct class by themselves, bearing flowers in globidar 

 masses of various colours and fragrance, well worthy of a detailed descrijition here, 

 but I must again think of the limited time at my disposal. The Bauhimas are 

 worthy of special mention, as being noted for the beauty and variety of their 

 dehcate flowers. BauUnea fomentosa (Roxburgh) has a cream-coloured flower 

 pale sulphur-marked on the ventral aspect "with an oblong deep purple spot" at 

 the base or insertion of the petals. The flower is as delicate as it is pleasing to the 

 eye for the harmonious blending of its colours. This I believe is the real Kanchan 

 of the Hindus. "The vernacular names of B. purpurea and B. variegata demand 

 further inquiry " says Brandis in a note to this genus in the Forest Flora of the 

 North-West and Central Provinces. I hope to furnish the results of this inquiry 

 some day before our Natural History Society. The larger-flowered Bauhinea 

 Variegata with its rich show of purple tinged with cream and red entitles it in my 

 opinion to the name of Vana-rajah — the " king of fore.=5ts" — in preference to any 

 of the known and described species of the genus Bauhiiiia. The Rev. Mr. Nairne, 

 late of the Bombay Civil Service, who strikes me as one of the most scientific and 

 quietly working Botanists this Presidency has ever seen, has been lately making 

 special enquiries with regard to the correct native names of the Bauhinias. 

 " I find," says he in a printed circular sent round to the members of our Natural 

 History Society, "some doubt as to which of the species of Bauhinia the names 

 Kanchan, Dev-kanchan, and Wan-rajah belong to." I have already specified the first 

 and the last, the second I believe to be the B. pwi-purea described by Roxburgh, the 

 Deva- kanchan of Bengal, a name I may say almost unknown in this Presidency, so 

 far as my information goes. Though as a tree B. variegata is nothing to look at, 

 and looks a half-starved irregular uncouth tree, ill-clad with foliage, when not in 

 flowers, it is a forester of marked beauty when its bold purple parti-coloured flowers 

 appear and conspicuously show it out in all its dazzling beauty as the " king of 

 forests "—a name, I think, barring its miserable foliage, it richly deserves. 



The flower of the pretty looking Careya arborea (kumbha)— if you but watch it as 

 the sun rises, for it drops its numerous white pinkish stamens en masse soon after the 

 flower opens — is a conspicuous forest beauty on account of the congregation of its 

 succulent flower cups on its bald bold terminal buds. Jxora coccinea is another of 

 our forest shrubs, perpetually in flower and of marked beauty. They grow in 



