BOMB AX MALABARICUM. (Nat. order Malvaceae.) 



BoMBAS. Linn. Benth and Hook. Gen. PI. p. 210. — GEN. CHAR. Calyx cup-9haped truncate or splitting into 3-4 lobes, staminal column 

 divNed into numerous filaments of which the inner ones or nearly all are more or less connected in pairs and united at the base into 5 or more bundles, 

 ovary 5 celled with several ovules in each cell, style club- shaped or shortly 5 lobed at the top. Capsule woody or coriaceous, opening loculicidally in 5 

 valves, the cells densely woolly inside, seeds obovoid or globular enveloped in the wool of the pericarp, albumen thin, cotyledons much folded round the 

 radicle. Trees, leaves digitate with leaflets usually entire, peduncles 1 flowered axillary or terminal, flowers white or red. Salmalia, Schott. 



BOMBAX MALABARICUM. (DC.) A gigantic tree, the trunk at least when young covered with short conical 

 prickles, leaves on long petioles deciduous, leaflets 5-7 petiolulate, elliptical-oblong acuminate 4-6 inches long coriaceous entire glabrouSj 

 flowers large red or white on short peduncles clustered towards the end of the branches, which are then destitute of leaves, calyx 1 inch 

 long and more, thick coriaceous glabrous outside, silky-hairy inside dividing into short broad obtuse lobes, petals 3 inches long, 

 oblong tomentose outside, subglabrous within, staminal column short, filaments much longer, but shorter than the petals, 5 innermost 

 forked at the top each branch bearing an anther, about 10 intermediate ones simple, and the numerous outer ones shortly united in 5 

 clusters, capsule large oblong and woody. DC, Prod. 1. 479. Salmalia Malabarica, Schott Meletem 35. Bonibax heptaphylla, Cav. 

 Wight III t. 29;— Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. p. 167. Moul elavao, Rheede Mai. iii. p. 61. t. 52. 



This gigantic tree is a very conspicuous and beautiful object in all our forests ; its trunk is beautifully straight and often SO or 100 

 feet to the first bough, of great girth, and generally furnished with very large buttresses. The flowers arevery large and handsome, but appear when 

 the tree is destitute of leaves; it is called the cotton tree by Europeans, Simal in Hindustani, Boorgha in Teligu, and lllavam in Tamil ; the timber 

 is generally considered quite worthless in thU Presidency, but in some parts of the western coast, trunks are hollowed out to make river canoes, the 

 wood is whitish, coarse grained, weak and brittle, soon decays, and is very subject to the attack of white ants; in some parts the timber is used for 

 boxes, planks, &c, and it is said to be rendered more dxtrable by the aetion of water, and is consequently used for water conduits, well- curbs, &c, and 

 sword scabbards are occasionally made of it. The cotton is used to stuff pillows, &c, but is useless for textile purposes; the gum from the bark and 

 the root are in use medicinally amongst the natives. It is found throughout India, and in Birrnah and Ceylon ; in the latter place it is called 

 Katu-imbal, and is in use for toys, models, floats, Sc. ; it makes a very poor fuel The white flowering variety u much rarer than the red. 



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