BYTTNEEIACE^. 449 



tion 30 genera, including 130 species. Examples— Bomhax, Helic- 

 teres, Sterculia. 



The plants are mucilaginous and demulcent ; many are used for 

 food, others supply a material like cotton. The silky hairs surround- 

 ing the seeds of Bombax Oeiha, the Silk-cotton tree, are used for 

 stuffing cushions and chairs, and for various other domestic purposes. 

 They cannot be manufactured, in consequence of want of adhesion 

 between the hairs. The trunk of the tree is made into canoes. Adan- 

 sonia digitata, the Baobab tree of Senegal, or monkey-bread, is one of 

 the largest known trees. Its trunk sometimes attains a diameter of 

 thirty feet, while its height is by no means in proportion. The pulp 

 of its fruit (amphisarca) is used as an article of food. It is emollient 

 and mucilaginous in all its parts. The dried leaves when powdered 

 constitute lalo, a favourite article with the Africans, which they mix 

 with their food for the purpose of diminishing the excessive perspira- 

 tion to which in those climates they are subject. It is found by 

 Europeans to be most serviceable in cases of diarrhoea, fevers, and 

 other maladies. Adansonia, Oregorii is the Gouty-stem tree of Australia. 

 Dv/rio dhethinus furnishes the fruit called Durian in the Indian Archi- 

 pelago. The fruit is much prized, although it has a* fetid odour, 

 which has given rise to the name Civet Durian. The moment the 

 fruit is ripe, it falls of itself, and the way to eat it in perfection is to 

 get it as it falls. Brachyehiton popukieum is the Poplar Bottle-tree of 

 Australia. Gheirostemon platanoides is called the Hand-plant of Mexico, 

 on account of its five pecuKarly curved anthers, which resemble a claw. 

 Helicteres (from helia;, a snail) is so named on account of its twisted 

 fruit. The Kola, mentioned by African travellers as being used to 

 sweeten water, is the seed of Stereulia tomentosa or acuminata. 



Order 28.^ — Byt^nbriace^, the Byttneria and Chocolate Family. 

 (Polypet. Hypog.) Calyx 4-5 lobed, valvate in sestivation (fig. 285 c, 

 p. 194). Petals 4-5 or 0, often elongated at the apex, with a twisted 

 or induplicate aestivation (fig. 285 p, p. 194). Stamens hypogynpus, 

 either equal in number to the petals, or some multiple of them, more. 

 or less monadelphous, some of them sterile ; anthers bUocular, introrse. 

 Ovary free, composed usually of 4-10 carpels arranged round a central 

 column; styles terminal, as many as the carpels, free or united; 

 ovules 2 in each looulament. Fruit capsular, either with loculicidal 

 dehiscence, or the carpels separating from each other. Seeds anatropal, 

 often winged ; embryo straight or curved, lying usually in fleshy albu- 

 men ; cotyledons either plaited or rolled up spirally. — Trees, shrubs, j^ 

 or undershrubs, with alternate leaves, having either deciduous stipules 

 or 0, and stellate or forked hairs. They abound in tropical climates. 

 Authors enumerate 30 genera, embracing about 400 species. Bytt- 

 neriads are often united with Sterculiads, from which they are distin- 

 guished by their slightly monadelphous stamens, and anthers tm-ned 



2g 



