Order XXIV
BOMBACE.
Distinguished from the last by the imbricate æstivation of the calyx, and the arrangement of the stamens in five sets, or, in Linnæan language, brotherhoods. The species are mostly fine trees with large showy flowers, and natives of the tropics. Some of them are among the largest trees in the world; Adansonia, the Baobab of Senegal, has been seen with a diameter of twenty-five feet, and specimens of Bómbax Ceíba, and of Bombax Ceíba, and Eriodéndron anfractuósum, are not uncommon an hundred feet in height. The wood of all the species is light and soft, as in Malvaceæ, from which this order probably does not differ in its medicinal properties. 1458 Ochróma W. 1466 Helícteres W. 1490 Carolínea W. 1491 Adansónia W.