STEREOSPERMUM GHELONOIDES. (Nat. order Bignoniacess.) 



oTEREOSPERMUM. Cham. DC. Prod, is, 210, — GEN. CHAR. Calyx coriaceous cup-shaped cylindrie subtruncafce obtusely 5 toothed, 

 aos-ol tube straight eompanulate limb bilabiate, 5 lobed, stamens 4 fertile, and a fifth small sterile, anthers 2 lobed naked, disk fleshy 5 lobed, ovary cylindrie 

 Btignia bilamellate, capsule tetragonous or cylindrie elongated membranaceous, partition contrary to the valves very cellular and corky thick, seeds bony 

 thinly winged laterally immersed, except the wings, in notches in the partition. 



STEREOSPERMUM CHELONOIDES. (Willd.) A. large tree, trunk very straight and of great height and thickness, 

 bark thick scabrous brown, branches very numerous, the inferior horizontal, above gradually becoming more and more erect, leaves oppo- 

 site unequally pinnate about 1 foot long, leaflets opposite with an odd one short petioled generally 4 pair, the inferior smallest obliquely 

 oval ovate or oblong entire pointed sometimes slightly notched about the margin, glabrescent, about i inches long by 2 broad, 

 panicles terminal the larger ramifications decussate, the smaller or terminal 2 forked with" a sessile flower in the fork, peduncles and 

 pedieels round covered with oblong gray seabroue specks, bracts small caducous, flowers pretty large yellowish very fragrant, calyx 

 4 ( — o ?) toothed at the apes, with the two upper teeth bidentate, disk a yellow fleshy ring round the base of the ovary, filaments as 

 in the geuus with a fifth sterile Gne, aethers double, stigma 2 eleft, capsule nearly 2 feet long slender twisted sharply tetragonous, 

 receptacle of the seeds spongy white with alternate notches along the sides in which the seeds lodge. Rozb. Fl. Ind- iii. 106 ; — 

 Wight leones, t. U41. 



This handsome tree is very common in almost all the forests of the Madras Presidency, up to an elevation of about 3000 feet, and 

 \in Mysore, Bombay, Bengal, Birmah and Ceylon, it is generally Imown by the,2amil name of Pdclri and is called Edld gorv, and Mohd 

 I F&pa in Telugu, P&del in Bombay, Loo&oo madala in Ceylon,, and in Birma Thakoojrpo, The wood is of a beautiful orange yellow color, 

 f ehee and even grained, elastic and durable, easily worked, and gives a smooth glossy surface; a cubic foot weighs 57 to 60 lbs. unseasoned 

 \ and 48 lbs, when, seasoned, and its specific gravity is *768 ; the sapwood is rather coarse-grained, of a brownish white color, and not durable. 

 The wood is much used in housebuilding and for a variety of purposes by the natives ; the rats, leaves, and flowers arc u/ed medicinally. 



