BOMBAX (from /34/14), a genus of plants, the type of the natural order Bornbaceee. It has a naked, campunulate, unequally 2-5-lobed or truncately 5-toothed calyx ; five petals joined together, and some what connected at the base with the column of the stamens; nume rous stamens, monadelphous at the base, but free at the apex ; the anthers inserted at the middle, kidney-shaped or oblong, opening above by a transverse chink ; the capsules large, 5-celled, 5-valved, woody ; cells many-seeded ; albuminous seeds surrounded by silky cotton. The species of this genus are large trees with a soft spongy wood, which is frequently used for making canoes. They are natives of South America and the East Indies.
B. Ceiba, Common Silk-Cotton Tree, has a prickly trunk, palmate leaves with five leaflets, turbinate fruit concave at the apex. This plant is a very large tree, and is a native of the West Indies and South America. Some of the older travellers gave extravagant accounts of its height ; it is however frequently seen reaching above 100 feet. The down, which is contained in the seed-vessel, is very soft, but is too short to be used in the manufacture of cloth. It is made into hate and bonnets, and used for stuffing chairs and pillows by the poor people in the districts in which it grows. It is not made into beds, as it is reputed unwholesome to lie upon. The trunks of the largest are made into canoes, and some of these will carry from fifteen to twenty hogsheads of sugar. Columbus in his first voyage to America speaks of having seen a canoe made of this tree in Cuba, which contained 150 men. When the stem decays it becomes the prey of the larva of the Macaca Beetle, which when gutted and fried is esteemed as a great delicacy in the districts where it occurs.
B. pubeseens has an unarmed trunk, the lower leaves quinate, the upper ones ternate ; the leaflets obovate, elliptical, emarginate, coria ceous, smooth, or covered with black dots of stellate pill beneath; the pedicles inflated and hollow under the flower, and as well as the calyxes covered with black dots of stellate tomentunt ; the petals tomentose, three times longer than the calyx, with a smooth ovary. This plant reaches from 20 to 30 feet in height. It is a native of Brazil, in the province of Minas Geraee, where the tree is called Embirussu. The bark is very tough, and is used for making ropes. The other species of Bombax, of which from fourteen to twenty have been described, possess the same general qualities as the two species described. The wool of the pods of the B. Ma2abaricum is used in India to stuff pillows and beds. B. insigne is a native of the Birman Empire, and is remarkable for its large red very showy flowers. All the species grow best in a rich loamy soil. Cuttings not too ripe, when taken off at a joint, will root freely in sand under a hand-glass in a moist heat. The best mode of propagating them is from seeds brought from the places of their natural growth. None of the species seem to have flowered in stoves, but this arises probably from the want of height.
(Burnett, Outlines ; Loudon, Encyclopmdia of Plants ; G. Don, Gardener's Dictionary.)