Flora Medica

StigmasHEUCTERES.long column that is urceolate and multifid at the apex, the fertileones mixed with some hair-like sterile filaments. Ovariumon a long stalk. Styles 5, united at the base. Carpels 5,1 -celled, many-seeded, dehiscing on the inside, sometimesstraight, usually twisted together spirally. Seeds without albumen:cotyledons spirally convolute. Shrubs and trees, usuallyclothed with stellate tomentum. Leaves simple, unequally cordate.Peduncles axillary, few-flowered. W. and A.277. H. Sacarolha Aug. de St. H.fl. us. t. 64. /. bras. i. 276.Common in Brazil. (Sacarolha, Rosea paras malas.)Leaves roundish ovate, or sharply ovate, hardly cordate, serrate,toothed, covered with rufous down. Petals narrow, hardly longer thanthe calyx. Stamen-tube octandrous, twice as long as the calyx.Carpels but little twisted. A decoction of the roots administered inBrazil in venereal complaints.ADANSONIA.Calyx without bracteoles, deciduous, 5-partite. Petals 5,united almost to the middle. Urceolus of stamens dilated and.expanded upwards. Style very long. many, stellate.Capsule woody, indehiscent, 10-celled; cells many-seeded, filledwith a farinaceous pulp enveloping the seeds. A spreadinglarge tree. Trunk thick, spongy. Leaves digitate, with 3leaflets on the young plant, and 5-7 on the adult. Flowers onlong axillary solitary pedicels, large, white, with purplish anthers.W. and A.278. A. digitata Linn. sp. pi. 960. Cav. diss. v. 298. t. 15.Lam. illustr. t. 588. DC. prodr.i. 4-78. W. and A. i. 60.Bot. t.Mag. 2791 and 2792. A. Baobab Gcertn. ii. t. 135.Baobab Alpin. (Egypt. 66. t. 67 Senegal, Sierra Leone,(Lalo.)A tree of moderate elevation, but whose trunk is of vast thickness,from 20 to 30 feet in diameter, soon dividing into branches of great size,and bearing a dense mass of leaves, which are digitate, quinate, glabrous,petiolated leaflets ;elliptical, scarcely acuminated, veined: petiolecylindrical, downy. Flowers axillary, solitary, very large, pendent.Peduncle 4-6 inches long, terete, pubescent, with about 2 linear-lanceolatebracts near the top ; calyx very large, cup-shaped, externallygreen and pubescent, within pale and silky, cut into 5, large, revolutesegments: its substance thick, and somewhat coriaceous. Petals 5spreading, at length deflexed, white, roundish, waved, faintly striated.Tube of the stamens long, thick, united to the base of the petals, terminatedby very numerous, spreading, afterwards recurved filaments,each bearing a 1 -celled anther, of a reddish-brown colour. Ovary ovate,silky, tapering upwards into a very long, thickish, filiform style, which is,in age, bent down at an angle:stigma of 7 to 10, spreading, pubescentrays. Fruit, a large, oblong or obovate, indehiscent, downy, pericarp ;8 or 10-celled ; but in a dry state, the partitions seem to be only formed139