The Leaves are truly digitate with 7-9 lobes, each 3-4 inches long and narrow and pointed. They are dark green and smooth and slightly paler beneath, with a long stalk.
The Flowers, which appear in December cover the leafless twigs in pendulous masses. They are lily-shaped, with 5 brownish petals, so densely covered with silky hairs as to appear white on the tree, especially when in bud. There are 5 stamens with rolled-up anthers and a long, white pistil. The attachment of the pistil to the ovary is peculiar. The concave base of the corolla, which sits on the ovary, is pierced with a small hole through which the pointed end of the pistil passes, but when the corolla falls entire, the pistil is prevented from remaining attached to it by a swelling of the style at the base of the corolla, on the inside. The ground may be seen littered with the fallen flowers, each containing the unattached pistil.
The Fruits are large, pendulous capsules, 6 inches long, which are black when ripe and split into 5 sections, releasing a number of small, black seeds which are embedded in a mass of silky fibre known as Kapok. The fibre grows from the inner surface of the capsule.
Uses.—The wood is used for canoes of inferior quality in places where a better timber is not handy.
The silk-cotton is used for stuffing all kinds of articles, and by the native for stuffing donkeys’ saddle-pads. It is also used as a kindling for flint and steel.
ERYTHRINA SENEGALENSIS DC.—Minjiriya. Majiriya. LEGUMINOSAE.
This species is common locally and prefers the banks of streams, on which it grows to large dimensions. Examples 40 feet high with a girth of over 6 feet are met with and numbers may be found growing together along a considerable length of a stream. It occurs also, more or less commonly in open forest country, but does not reach the same dimensions as those near water. The larger trees have 20 feet boles and large, crooked limbs forming a wide, open crown, irregular in form.
The Bark of old trees is very rough and, in the case of those trees growing on stream banks, covered with lichen. There are long, vertical fissures and long, heavy scales. The stem of the young tree, and the branches of the old, are covered with short, sharp thorns with heavy bases, in pairs, pale brown with black points. The slash is yellow.