66 Leguminoscs. \Butea. 



hairy ; pod 1^-2 .in. by \ in. broad, slightly curved upwards, 

 apiculate, at first silky, becoming glabrous ; seeds 6-9, small, 

 compressed, black. 



Upper zone of low country, rather common ; Kotmalie ; Hantane j 

 Matale. Fl. pink. 



Also in India, Siam, Malay Is., Australia, and E. Trop. Africa. 



The nodes of the inflorescence can scarcely be said to be tumid in 

 the Ceylon species. 



\Sfiatholobus Roxburghu, Benth., is represented in Herb. Kew by 

 specimens of Walker's (n. 1331) professing to be from Ceylon, and the 

 plant is entered for this country in Fl. B. Ind. ii. 193. They are not 

 further localised, and, as no one else has met with this conspicuous woody 

 climber, some error is probable. The species, however, occurs in India 

 and Burma ; it is figured in Wight, Ic. t. 210 (as Buteaparviflord)^ 



30. BUTEA, Roxb. 



An erect tree, 1. pinnately 3-foliolate, with stipels, fl. large, 

 fascicled, in racemes with swollen nodes ; cal. shallowly cam- 

 panulate, segm. shallow, 2 upper connate, 3 lower equal ; pet. 

 nearly equal, keel-pet. completely connate, much curved ; 

 stam. diadelphous, the free fil. shorter than the rest ; pod 

 large, flat, linear-oblong, leathery, the lower f without seeds 

 and indehiscent, the terminal \ containing the solitary seed 

 and dehiscent round the edge ; seed with a small hilum. — Sp. 

 3 ; all in Fl. B. Ind. 



B. frondosa, Koen. ex Roxb. in Asiat. Researches, iii. 469 (1792). 

 Gas-kela, S. Parasu, T. 



Moon Cat. 52. Thw. Enum. 89. C. P. 1465. 



Fl. B. Ind. ii. 194. Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 176. Bentl. and Trim. Med. PL 

 t. 79 (from a Ceylon specimen). 



A moderate-sized or small tree, with a crooked trunk and 

 irregular branches, bark thick, rough, ash-coloured, fibrous, 

 exfoliating in small pieces, young shoots densely pubescent ; 

 1. large, rachis 5-8 in., slender, pubescent when young, swollen 

 at base, stip. small, linear-lanceolate, deciduous, lflts. 4-8 in., 

 unequal the terminal the largest and rhomboid-orbicular, the 

 lat. ones obovate-oval, dilated in lower half, all very obtuse, 

 glabrous above when mature, closely and finely tomentose 

 and with much raised reticulation beneath ; fl. large 1J-2 in., 

 on velvety drooping ped. f-i in. long, 2 or 3 together from 

 the swollen nodes of rigid stout racemes coming off from 

 woody tuberosities, bracts small, deciduous ; cal. finely velvety 

 outside, lined with white silvery hair, segm. acute ; keel very 

 deeply boat-shaped acute; pod pendulous, 5-8 in., by about f 

 in wide, on a densely woolly stalk f in. long, obtuse, thickened 



