BIGNONIA XYLOCARPA. (Nat. order Bignoniacea3.) 



BlGNONIA. Linn. DO. is., 143. — GEN. CHAE. Calyx 5-toothcd at the margin rarely entire or 3-parted or 2-3 lobed, corol 2 lipped or 

 nearly equal 5 cleft, stamens 4 fertile didynamous a 5th sterile ; anthers with glabrous cells very often distinct, stigma bilamellate ; capsule with the valves 

 scarcely convex or flat, partition flat parallel to the valves ; seeds in a single row at each side of the partition, winged on both sides, wing pellucid. Trees or 

 shrubs, leaves almost always opposite but very various. 



BlQNONIA XYLOCARPA. (Roxb.) A large tree, trunk straight, bark ash-colored rather spongy and considerably 

 cracked, branches sparse, leaves opposite bi-tripinnate 1-4 feet long, leaflets short petioled from semi-cordate to obliquely-oblong entire 

 acuminate glabrous but hard 2-5 inches long by 1-1 J broad, petioles common and partial channelled and sharply angular scabrous with 

 elevated gray specks, panicles terminal corymbose branches several times dichotomous with a single flower in the forks slightly pube- 

 scent, bractes ovate-oblong, flowers large white with a tinge of yellow very fragrant, calyx campanulate unequally 5-toothed colored 

 corol campanulate shortly tubular with 5 rounded much curled lobes, stamens as in the genus with a fifth sterile one, ovary oblong 

 with an annular disk round its base 2-celled with numerous ovules attached to 2 thick equi-distant receptacles on each side of the 

 partition, style the length of the stamens, stigma of 2 oblong lobes, capsule linear variously bent about 2 feet long by 1-1^ inches in 

 diameter, of a very hard woody texture and extremely rough with numerous hard tubercles, 1 celled 2 valved partition contrary sub- 

 cylindric spongy, seeds numerous winged, cotyledons thin nearly round emarginate, radicle short. Eoxb. Fl, Lid. iii. 108. 



A common tree in almost all the Madras forests and in Mysore, Bengal and Bombay ; the leaves are deciduous in the cold weather 

 and appear again with or a little after the flovjers in March or April; it is a handsome tree and a rapid grovjer, and worthy of culti- 

 vation for ornamental purposes; it is called Vadencarni i?i Tamil; wood brownish yellow, rather close-grained, takes a good polish, and is 

 used for cabinet purposes. 



The plate represents only a portion of a flowering panicle and a very young fruit. 



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