Bombax
also known as the silk cotton tree; a genus of plants belonging to the order sterculiaceæ (sterculiads) and the section bombacex. B. pentandrum is the cotton tree of India. The fruit is larger than a swan's egg, and when ripe opens in five parts, display- BOMBAY ing many roundish, pealike seeds enveloped in dark cotton. This tree yields a gum, given in conjunction with spices in certain stages of bowel complaints.
B. ceiba, 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.