NOM. VULG.—Taglinaw, Bobuy gubat, Tag.; Talutu, Vis.

USES.—In India the roots are used to obtain an astringent and alterative effect and form part of a well-known aphrodisiac mixture called Musla-Samul. If the trunk is incised, an astringent gum exudes and this they use in diarrhoea, dysentery and menorrhagia. Dose of the gum 2½–3 grams.

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION.—A large tree covered with sharp, conical and tough spines. Leaves alternate, compound, digitate, caducous; leaflets 5–7 with long common petiole. Flowers solitary or in axillary cymes, hermaphrodite, regular.

Calyx gamosepalous, cup-shaped, with 5 acute lobules. Corolla violet, with 5 deep clefts; æstivation convolute. Stamens numerous, united at the base in 5 bundles, free above, bearing unilocular anthers. Ovary of 5 many-ovulate compartments, with a style ending in 5 short branches. Capsule woody, ovoid, loculicidal, with 5 valves. Seeds numerous, black, covered with cottony fibers.

HABITAT.—Angat, Iloilo. Blooms in February.