Flora Medica

soft, greenish-purple do^n. Flowers papilionaceous, pendulous, numerous,stalked, fascicled, very large, their ground colour a beautifuldeep red, shaded with orange and silver-coloured down, which givesthem a most elegant appearance. Pedicels round, about an inch long,jointed near the apex, and covered with the same greenish, velvet-likedown. Bractes lanceolate, deciduous, one below the insertion of eachpedicel, and two smaller, pressing on the calyx. Calyx campanulate,leathery, 2-lipped the upper ; lip large, scarcely emarginate the;underone 3-toothed, covered with the same dark-green down that the racemesand pedicels are covered with. Vexillum reflexed, ovate, pointed,very little longer than the wings ; wings ascending, lanceolate, the lengthof the keel ;keel 2-parted, ascending, large, semilunate, the length ofthe wings and vexillum ; filaments 1 and 9, ascending in a regular semicircle,about as long as the corolla. Anthers equal, linear, erect.Ovary short, thick, stalked, lanceolate, downy. Style ascending, alittle longer than the filaments. Stigma small, glandular. Legumestalked, pendulous, linear, thin, downy, about 6 inches long. Seed 1,lodged near thepoint of thelegume,oval,muchcompressed,smooth,brown,about IA inch long, and about 1 broad. Juice, which naturally exudesfrom cracks and wounds in the bark, hardens into a most beautifulruby-coloured brittle astringent gum. It dissolves perfectly in waterand partially in spirit. Infusions of the flowers dye cotton cloth, previouslyimpregnated with a solution of alum, of a beautiful bright yellow ;a little alkali changes it to a deep reddish orange. Lac insects arefrequent on the small branches and petioles. Guibourt considers thatthis plant produces the Cachou en masse or Cachou lucide ; but Mr.Pereira doubts it. Med. gaz. xx. 103.528. B. superba Roxb. cor. i. t. 22. fl.ind. iii. 247. DC.ii.prodr. 415. W. and A. i. 261. Circar mountains.Root fusiform, very large. Stem twining, as thick or thicker than aman's leg, woody, very long, running over large trees. Bark ashcoloured,pretty smooth. Branches like the stem, but with a smootherbark. Leaves alternate, terminal, remote, very large leaflets ; downy,in other respects as in B. frondosa, but much larger ;the exterior oneis often about 20 inches long, and broad in proportion, the lateral onessomewhat less. Racemes as in the former, but much larger. Flowersalso the same, only much larger, and more numerous. Calyx with thedivisions longer and much more pointed. Corolla the same. Legumesand seed rather larger. Sensible properties altogether the same as inB. frondosa.PTEROCARPUS.Calyx 5-cleft, somewhat bilabiate. Corolla papilionaceous,glabrous : keel-petals distinct or slightly cohering. Stamens10, variously combined. Ovary long-stalked. Legume indehiscent,irregular, somewhat orbicular, surrounded by a wing,woody, and often rugose in the middle, 1-3-celled. Seeds solitaryin each cell, reniform. Unarmed trees or shrubs. Leavesunequally pinnated. Racemes axillary or forming terminal panicles.W. and A.255