Bombax

also known as the silk cotton tree. The fruit is larger than a swan’s egg, and when ripe opens in five parts, displaying many roundish, pea-like seeds enveloped in dark cotton. This tree yields a gum, given in conjunction with spices in certain stages of bowel complaints. The five leaved silk cotton tree, rises to a great height. Its native country is South America and the adjacent West India Islands, where its immense trunk is scooped into canoes, Bombay, the second largest of the nine great Provinces of British India. It stretches along the west of the Indian peninsula, and is irregular in its outline and surface, presenting mountainous tracts, low, barren hills, valleys, and high tablelands. It is divided into a Northern, a Central, and a Southern Division, the Sind Division, and the town and island of Bombay. ‘Total area, 184,285 square miles; pop. (1901) 18,584,496, including the city and territory of Aden in Arabia, TO square miles (pop. 44,- 079). The native or feudatory States connected with the province (the chief being Kathiawar) have an area of 65,761 square miles; pop. (1901) 6,908,648. The Porurae po e ions, Goa, Daman, and Diu, geographically belong to it. Many — the valleys in particular, are fertile and highly cultivated; other districts are being gradually developed by the construction of roads and railroads. The southern portions are well supplied with moisture, but great part of Sind is the most arid portion of India. The climate varies, being unhealthful in the capital, Bombay, and its vicinity, but at other places, such as Poonah, ee favorable to Europe ans. The chief productions of the soil are cotton, rice, millet, wheat, barley, c dates, and the cocoa palm. The manufactures are cotton, silk, leather, etc. The great export is cotton. The administration is in the hands of a Governor and council. The chief source of revenue is the land, which is largely held on the rayatwar (small farmer) system. Revenue and expentiture