PTEROSPERMITM.. Schreb. (Nat. order Sterculiacese.) 



GEN. CHAR. : Calyx tubular 5 lobed, petals 5, stamens united into a column at the base with 5 long barren filaments, and 15 shorter ones 

 (in 5 phalauges of 3 each) each bearing a linear erect 2-celled anther, ovary shortly stalked 5 celled with several ovules in each cell, style entire, capsule 

 woody with a loculicidal dehiscence, seeds winged at the upper end, albumen scarcely any. Trees, with a stellate or Bcaly pubescence, leaves coriaceous, 

 flowers usually large solitary or few together on axillary peduncles. 



P TEROSPERMUM RUBIGINOSUM. (Heyne). A very large tree, young branches covered with brownish rusty toinen- 

 tum, leaves very obliquely ovate very unequal sided, quite entire acuminate, upper side covered with fugacious rusty down at length 

 quite glabrous, under side softly dowuy, with close set brown tomentum, 2-2 J inches long by about 1 inch broad, petioles about 2 

 lines long, stipules downy with a broad concave base and 1-2 filiform teeth, peduncles axillary 1 flowered 2-3 times longer than the 

 petioles furnished at the base with a few bractes resembling the stipules, flower bud angled stellately downy on the outside, bracteoles 

 of the calyx none, flowers about 2 inches long, white, sepals and petals narrow linear, connective of the anthers produced into a ter- 

 minal point, stigma obscurely 5 lobed, capsule ovate pointed o angled covered with stellate down, 2 inches long by about f inch in 

 diameter. — WA. Prod, p. 68. 



Ihis very fine tree is very common in the TinneveUy districts, the Wynad, Anamallays, and generally throughout our western forests up 

 to about 3,000 feet ; the timber is excellent, and the tree is called Kara toveray in TinneveUy, where the %oood is much in use for building ana other 

 purposes. 



10G 



