Bauhinia.] 



LEGVMINOS^. 



297 



proportion of pod-'bearing' trees is secured. For further particulars seo- 

 Dr. Watt's Dictionary article. 



Saraca indica, L.. Vera. Asol; is an evergreen tree much cultivated in 

 gardens for the sake of its very handsome crange-red flowers. Being 

 regarded by the Hiudus as a sacred tree, it is often planted near temples. 

 It is found wild at low elevations o» the Himalaya from Kumaon east- 

 wards, also in E. Bengal, Burma, S. India and Ceylon. 



59. BAUHINIA, Linn. ; Brit. Ind. ii, 275. 



Unarmed erect trees or climbers with circinate tendrils- Leaves 

 simple, usually more or less deeply cleft from the tip, rarely entire 

 or fully divided into 2 leaflets*. Flowers usually showy, sometimes 

 small, in copious simple or panicled often corymbose racemes. Calyx' 

 iuhe with the disk produced to the top, sometimes long and cylindric, 

 sometimes short and turbinate ; limb entire and spathaceous, or cleft 

 into 2 or 5 teeth. Petals 5, subequal, usually with a distinct claw. 

 Stamens 10, or reduced to 5 or 3 or 1, if fewer than 10 with or 

 without sterile filaments ; filaments free, filiform ; anthers versatile, 

 dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary stalised, many-ovuled ; style long 

 or short ; stigma small or large, peltate subterminal or oblique. 

 JPod linear or oblong, flat, continuous within, dehiscent or indehiscent. 

 Seeds albuminous. — Species 150, spread throughout the tropics. 



Fertile stamens 10. 

 A shrub with large yellow flowers, pod 



dehiscent . . . . . 1. B. tomentosa. 



Trees with small whitish flowers and 

 indehiscent pods. 



Calyx spathaceous, pod falcate, 



irrgularly reticulate-veined . 2. B. racemosa. 



Calyx 5-cleft ; pod straight, mark- 

 ed with diagonal parallel veins . 5. B. malaharica. 

 Fertile stamens 3-5. 

 Leaflets connate to the apex, perfect 



stamens 3 . . . . 4. B. retusa. 



Leaves deeply cleft. 



A robust climber with large co- 

 rymbs of yellow flowers, stam- 

 ens 3 . . . . . 5. B. Vahlii. 

 A tree with the calyx 2-cleft, stam- 

 ens 3 or 4 . . . . 6. B. purpurea. 

 A tree with spathaceous calyx, 

 stamens 5 , , . . . 7. B. variegata. 



1 B. tomentosa, Linn , Sp. PI. 375 ; Roxh 

 ■prod. 295 ; Brand. For. Fl. 159 ; F. B. I. ii 



&.; Fl. Ind. ii, 323 ; W. & A. 



275 ; Watt 6. D. 



