15. MALVACEAE. 



39 



diameter of over a foot. Bark thick, viscid, mucilaginous within, brown 

 outside and wrinkled, scaly. Wood white or dark grey, soft ; no heart- 

 wood. Pores moderate sized, single or subdivided. Med. rays fine or 

 medium broad, joined by distinct lines of white tissue. Weighs about 

 40 lbs. to the cubic foot. Used for house-building, agricultural im- 

 plements and for carving. The inner bark is used for elephant timber- 

 dragging ropes in K Kanara. Flowers from July till Jany. Fruit 

 J any. -Feb., remains long on the tree. 



6. ADANSONIA, L. 



Tree with a very thick trunk at the base. Leaves digitate^ deci- 

 duous. Flowers axillary, large, pendulous, long peduncled. Calyx 

 5-cleft, 2-liracteolate. Petals 5. Staminal tube cylindrical, dividing 

 above into numerous filaments. Ovary ovoid, silky-tomentose ; style 

 filiform, bent after floweriDg. Fruit a pendulous capsule with mealy 

 pulp. Seeds reniform, testa thick ; albumen thin ; cotyledoDS eontor- 

 tuplicate. 



A. digitata. Linn. Fl. Br. 1. 1. 348 ; Brandis For. Fl. 30 ; Dalz. & Gibs. 

 Bom. Fl. Suppl. 9. Gonik cJientz, M. ; Qoruk amla, H, The Baobab, or 

 Monkey Bread Tree of Africa. 



Cultivated in various parts of the presidency and Ceylon. Fl. May- 

 June, One of the largest trees in the world. Trunks 30 ft. in diameter, 

 common in Africa (Senegal). Wood light, soft and porous. Large 

 trees are supposed to be of great age, but the several trees I observed 

 in the Dharwar district were fairly large and not more than 30 or 40 

 years old. 



7. BOMBAX, L. 



Trees. Leaves digitate, deciduous. Flowers axillary or subterminal 

 Calyx cup-shaped, truncate or 3-7-lobed. Petals large, scarlet, 

 obovate. Stamens pentadelphous and divided into numerous filaments. 

 Ovary S-celled, stigmas 5 ; ovules many in each cell. Capsule 5- 

 valved, woolly within. Seeds woolly ; testa thin ; albumen scanty ; 

 cotyledons much folded round the radicle. 



Leaflets 5-7. Calyx not^ -prickly. Ovary glabrous. 



Stamens 75 ... ... ... 1. B. malalaricum. 



Leaflets 7-9. Calyx prickly. Stamens about 400. 



Ovary tomentose ... ... ... 2. B, insigne. 



1. B. malabaricum, DO. Prod. L 479; Fl. Br. I. 1. 349; Brandis 

 For. Fl. 31 ; Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 32. Salmalia malaharicay Schott. Dalz. 

 & Gibs. Bomb. Fl. 22. The Silk Cotton Tree. Burla, sauri, K. ; Sayar, 

 M. 



Throughout the hotter parts of India, Burma and Ceylon, often 

 cultivated. Leafless from Nov. till April. Fl. Fcb.-Mch. Fr. Apl.- 

 May. A very large, buttressed tree with a cylindrical stem, sometimes 

 100 ft. to the first branch and 5-6 ft. in diameter 5 ft. from the ground. 



