DESOKIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 221 



Coboya (Philippines). See Allium cepa and Gardens. 

 Ceiba casearia. Same as Cdba pentandra. 



Ceiba pentandra. Kapok. Plate xlii. 



Family Bombacaceae. 

 Local names. — Algodon de Manila (Spanish); Atgodon de Manila (Guam); 



Doldol, Capoc, Kapok, Bubui (Philippines); Kapok (Java); Imbul, Pulun- 



imbul (Ceylon); Ceiba (Cuba, Central America); Silk-cotton tree (Brit. W. 



Indies). 

 A tall tree with a straight trunk, prickly when young, with whorls of horizontal 

 branches, palmately compound, deciduous leaves, and mallow-like flowers appearing 

 before the leaves, followed by pods containing silky floss. Leaflets 5 to 8, lanceolate, 

 cuspidate, entire or serrulate toward the point, glaucous beneath; petioles as long as 

 or longer than the leaflets; stipules small, deciduous; petals 5, united at the base; 

 stamens in 5 bundles; filaments joined at the base, each bearing 2 versatile anfrac- 

 tuose anthers; style crowned with a 5 or 6-cleft stigma; capsule cucumber-shaped, 

 woody when mature, 5-celled, 5-valved; cells many-seeded; seeds embedded in the 

 flossy down. 



The color of the flowers of this species varies. In Guam they are white, yellowish 

 within; in the West Indies there is a variety with rose-colored flowers. There is 

 some difference between trees growing in the East Indies and in the West Indies, 

 and some botanists have regarded them as distinct species. The trunks of the young 

 trees of both are armed with stout, sharp protuberances; but in the West Indian tree 

 they are often swollen or ventricose in shape, while those of the East Indies are 

 straight and tapering. No difference, however, can be discovered in herbarium 

 specimens great enough to warrant their being separated." 



A common tree in Guam, growing near ranches and along the roadside, sometimes 

 used for marking the boundary between adjacent farms. In Java the trees are 

 grown along the roadsides for telephone poles. The wood is soft and white and is 

 not utilized on the island. The silky floss can not be spun. In Guam it is used for 

 stuffing cushions and pillows. It is brittle, elastic, and very inflammable. In India 

 it is used in the manufacture of fireworks. In commerce it is known as "kapok," 

 and was first brought to notice by the Dutch, who drew their supply from Java, It 

 is now used in upholstery, and has the virtue of not becoming matted. 

 References: 



Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn. Fruct. 2: 244. t. ISS.f. 1. 1791. 



Bombax peniandrum L. Sp. PI. 1 : 511. 1753. 



Eriodendron anfraduosum DC. Prod. 1 : 479. 1824. 

 Cenchrus lappaceus. Same as Centotheca lappacea. 

 Cenizo (Spanish). See Chenopodium album. 



Centella asiatica. Indian pennywort. 



Family Apiaceae. 

 Local names. — Yahon-yahon (Philippines); Tono (Samoa); Yerba de clavo 



(Porto Eico); Ovate-leaved marsh pennywort (United States). 

 A perennial herb closely allied to Hydrocotyle, with prostrate stems, rooting and 

 sending up tufts of long-petioled leaves at the nodes, together with 1 to 3 long-rayed 

 umbellets of small white flowers, the true umbel sessile. Leaves not peltate, ovate, 

 rather thick, rounded at apex, broadly cordate at base, repand-dentate; pedicels 

 much shorter than the leaves; umbellets capitate, 2 to 4-flowered, subtended by 2 

 ovate bracts; flowers pink, nearly sessile; fruit prominently ribbed and reticulated. 

 A plant growing in wet shady places, widely spread in warm countries. In India 



«For the synonymy of this species see Notes on Ceiba, by James Britten and 

 Edmund G. Baker, Journal of Botan\ April, 1896. 



