79 
SOFT-LEAVED AVICENNIA. 
AVICENNIA tomentosa, (, Jacquin ), foliis ollongis obtusis subtus tomen - 
tosis. Willd. Sp. pi. 5, p. 395. Jacq. Amer. t. 112. Palis. Beauv. 
Flor. t. 47. Brown, Prod. p. 518. 
Bontia foliis integris oblongis oppositis , petiolis crassis brevissimis sub - 
amplexantibus, jloribus racemosis . Brown, Jamaica, p. 263. 
Halodendrum. Thouads Gen. Madagasc. No. 26. 
Mangle laurocerasi foliis , flore albo tetrapetalo . Sloane, Jam. p. 156. 
Hist. 2, p. 66. Raj. Dendr. p. 115. 
Anacardium. Bauhin , Pinax. p. 511. Oepata. Rheed , Malab. vol. 4, 
p. 95, tab. 45.^!'Sceura, Forsk. iEgypt, p. 37. 
Mangium album . Rumph. Amboin. vol. 3, p. 115, t. 76. 
Rack. Bruce , Iter. t. 34. 
The Avicennia or Malacca Bean, according to Rheed, 
becomes a tall and graceful tree on the coast of India, 
rising to the height of 70 feet, with a trunk of 16 feet in 
circumference, sustaining a pyramidal and somewhat orbi- 
cular summit of dense and dark verdure. The wood is 
whitish, covered with a grey bark, and is employed for 
many economical purposes. The kernels, naturally bitter, 
deprived of this quality by steeping and boiling in water 
are then sufficiently edible and known to the Hindoos by 
the name of Caril ; an oil may also be expressed from them 
as from the nuts of the Anacardium. 
The leaves are opposite, lanceolate-oblong, obtuse or 
lanceolate and acute, entire, smooth and shining above, on 
short petioles, beneath more or less whitish with a short 
close tomentum ; they are about 3 inches long, and from 
an inch to an inch and a half wide. The flowers are rather 
small and whitish, with an agreeable odour, and disposed 
