BOM 



£(r. Char. Cal. fimple. Capfule fomewhat woody, five- 

 celled, five-valved. Seeds woolly. Recepl. five-cornered. 



Species, i. B. fentandrnm. (La Marck Tab. 

 587.) •* Flowers pentandrous." Linn. " Anthers bent ; 

 leaves in fevens." Willden. A tree fixty or eighty feet 

 high. Bark, greenifli, ftnooth, eafily feparated from the 

 wood ; often fprnikkd, cfpecially when young, with large, 

 conic, fpinous tubercles; branches, near the fumniit, pen- 

 dant ; leaves 011 long petioles, digitate, folioles from live to 

 nine, either entire or ferrate, lanceolate, ending in a point ; 

 flowers in a fimple umbel; partial peduncles about an inch 

 long, with fcveral alternate braftcs ; petals five, white and 

 velvety without, linooth, concave, and 6f a purple or deli- 

 cate rofe colour within ; anthers two or three, on a filament, 

 twilled together ; fruit half a foot long, fliaped like a cu- 

 cumber, very (lender at its bafe ; feeds oval with a fliarpilh 

 point, enveloped with a great quantity of (hort dark cotton 

 which is not fpun, but ufed for Huffing pillows, mattralfes, 

 &c. Rnniphius fays that the valves open at the bafe. 

 Plumier afferts the contrary. Jacquin, who faw the living 

 plant in fruit, gives no information on the fuhjeft. A na- 

 tive of both Indies. Cultivated by Mr. Miller in 17^9. 

 2. B. eriatithos. (Cavan. Tab. 152.) " Flowers pentandrous ; 

 anthers fimple, ereft ; leaves in fevens." Willd. Trunk very 

 fpinous ; leaves terminated by a filament, very fmooth ; 

 calyx Ihort and very large ; petals three inches long, whitifli, 

 covered without with a (hurt thick down, fmooth within, 

 concave, and rounded at their extremity ; tube formed by the 

 h)wer part of the filaments, bottle (baped ; anther linear, 

 longitudinally fixed to the upper part of the filament. Found 

 by Commerfon in Brazil. 3. B. pyreinudak. " Stem with- 

 out thorns; leaves cordate, angular; flower pentandrous ; 

 anthers united ; fruit very long, pyramidal." Cavan. A 

 large tree with very fpreadiiig branches ; wood white and fo 

 light that fifiiers ul'e it inftead of cork ; bark thick, fibrous, 

 cinereous, marked with whitilli fpots, and reddidi wrinkles ; 

 leaves a foot in diameter, rtrongly nerved, green on the up- 

 per, ycUowifii and downy on the lower furfacc, on long and 

 thick petioles ; flowers numerous on long peduncles ; coroll 

 large, monopetalous, campanulatc, deeply divided into five 

 fegmcnts ; calyx large, reddilh, green, campanulate, with 

 five blunt divifmns ; filaments five, thick, fupporting as 

 many large nearly arrow-lhaped anthers which are fpirally 

 imited and cnclofe the fummit of the llyle ; ftyle reddifli, 

 club-fliaped, marked at the end with five fpiral furrows ; 

 caplule furrowed, from eight to ten inches long ; feeds very 

 fmall, fomewhat cgg-fliaped, enveloped with fine, fhort, 

 reddilh cotton. A native of the Antilles. ^. Y>. grandlflura. 

 " Leaves in fevens j flowers pentapetalous, l.irge, polyau- 

 drous; ftamens unittd into a tube at the bafe/' Cavan. 

 Calyx large, expanding with four blunt divifions ; coroll 

 fuperb, of five petals, each five inches long, but narrow in 

 proportion to tiicir length, whitifli, flefliy at their bafe, 

 velvety without, I'mooth within, and rounded at their ex- 

 tremities, inferted at the bafe of the tube of the filaments, 

 which is naked, entire in its whole length, and terminated 

 by a prodigious number of red filaments a little fliorter than 

 the coroll ; anthers kidney-fliaped, fmall and loofely attached 

 to the filaments ; ilyle filiform, thick, longer than the 

 ftamens, with five fmall teeth ; fruit unknown. Defcribed 

 by Cavanilles from a fpecimen in the Herbarium of Thouin. 

 It grows about Rio-janeiro. 5. B. Cahi. " Flowers 

 polyandrous ; leaves in fives." Linn. Trunk clofely armed 

 with ihort, ilrong fpines, fo large as to be hollowed out into 

 canoes of twenty-five tons burden ; calyx fmall, campanu- 

 late, with five fmall teeth ; coroll monopetalous ; tube 

 ftraight, twice as long as the calyx j border divided into five 



BOM 



long, concave cbtufe fegments ; filaments nuinerous, pro- 

 ceeding from five dillinft bodies, which are united at the 

 bafe and form a conic tube adhering to the bafe of the 

 coroll ; anthers oblong, loofe ; germ fomewhat ovate, with 

 five angles ; capfule oblong, fmall at the bafe ; feeds nearly 

 round, covered with down, which is ufed by tiie lower ranks 

 to iluff pillows and chairs. A native of South America, 

 near Carthagena. Cultivated at Hampton Court in 1692, 

 6. B. heptaphyllum. " Flowers polyandrous ; leaves in fe- 

 vens." lAna. " Stamens in five bodies." Cavan. A 

 tree fifty feet high, fix feet diameter at its bafe ; wood foft, 

 light, and brittle ; bark thick, cinereous, fpinous when 

 young; leaves digitate ; calyx four cleft ; flowers numerous, 

 large, odorous ; coroll of five petals, downy without, at- 

 tached by its bafe to the bottom of the tube of the fila- 

 ments ; filaments very numerous, kidney-fliapcd, fliorter 

 than the coroll, loofely attached ; fruit elongated. 7. B. 

 glohofum. " Leaves in fives or fevens, obovate, emarginate ; 

 fruit globular." WiUd. (Aub. Guian. Tab. 281.) A 

 tree thirty feet high ; trunk a foot and a half in diameter ; 

 leaves palmate, green, fmooth, oval, obtufe, (lightly crenu- 

 lated at the fummit, the middle one the largell, on long 

 petioles, with two long, pointed, caducous ftipules at their 

 bafe ; flowers unknown ; fruit in axillary and terminating 

 racemes. A native of Cayenne. 8. B. grj/fypium. " Leaves 

 five-lobed, acuminate, tomentofe beneath." Linn. A 

 large tree with green, nearly fmooth bark ; leaves alternate 

 on long, (lender, pubefcent petioles; flowers large, in fimple 

 panicles on downy peduncles ; calyx of five unequal leaves ; 

 petals twe, as long again as the calyx, expanding, yellow ; 

 filaments numerous, flightly united at their bafe ; anthers 

 oblong, curved ; capfule oval-obtufe ; feeds kidney-lhaped. 

 A native of the coallof Coromandel. 



The fpecies known to Linnasus were at firft placed by him 

 with the common cotton and its congeners, under the old 

 Greek name Xylon ; but afrerwards feparated on account of 

 the fimple calyx. Thofe with the double calyx he then 

 called gofiypium ; thofe with the fimple one bombax. The 

 fpecies of the genus bombax, as it now Hands, differ fo 

 much from each other in moll of the parts of frudification, 

 as almoll to juftify the divifion of them into dillindl genera. 

 The culyx, the coroll, the number and fupport of the 

 llamens, the form and iiilertion of the anthers, all vary : 

 nothing is conllant but the fimple calyx ; the five-celled, 

 five-valved capfule, and the woolly feeds. We have alteretl 

 the natural and efleiitial generic charadcrs, and fo formed 

 ihem as not to exclude any of the fpecies. 



Propagation and Culture. Silk cotton is propagated by 

 feeds fown in a hot-bed in the fpring. In about two months 

 it fliould be tranfplanted into a fmall pot filled with fre(h 

 loamy earth, and piungtd into a moderate hot-bed of tan- 

 ners' bark. At firft it fliould be fliaded from the fun ; but 

 afterwards, when the weather is warm, (hould be allowed 

 frefii air, and frequent fupplies of water in fmall quantities, 

 with a nnifonn degree of heat. In autumn it muft be re- 

 moved into the bark-ftove and fparingly fupplied with 

 moiiluie. It makes a pleafing variety in a large (tove, but 

 is not likely to produce (lowers in England. See Miller, 

 Gardener's Diftionary. 



BOMBAY, in Geography, a fmall ifland in the Indian 

 Sea, near the weftern coall of Hindollan, about 7 miles in 

 length and very narrow, containing a very (Irong and ca- 

 pacious fortrefs, a large city, a dock-yard, and marine arfe- 

 nal. It is feparated on the N.E. by a narrow llrait from 

 Salfette, another ifland, and thefe two, together with the 

 neighbouring fliores of the continent, form a large found, 

 in whicli are feveral other iflands, particularly Caranjah and 



Elephanta ; 



