306 VIEWS, &.C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



Baobab (monkey bread- tree) have already been given. (See 

 pp. 270 272.) With the form of the Malvaceae are asso- 

 ciated the botanically allied families of the Byttneriaceae, 

 (Sterculia, Hermannia, and the blossoms of the large-leaved 

 Theobroma Cacao, whose flowers break forth from the bark 

 of the trunk as well as from the roots); the Bombaceae 

 (Adansonia, Helicteres, and Cheirosteman); and, lastly, the 

 Tiliaceae (Sparmannia Africana}. Our Cavanillesia plantani- 

 folia of Turbaco, near Carthagena in South America, and the 

 celebrated Ochroma-like Hand-tree, the Macpalxochiquahuitl 

 of the Mexicans, (from Macpalli, the flat of the hand,) Arbol 

 de las manitas of the Spaniards, our Cheirostemon platanoides, 

 are splendid representatives of the mallow form. In the last 

 named, the anthers are connected together in such a manner 

 as to resemble a hand or claw rising from the beautiful 

 purplish-red blossoms. There is in all the Mexican free 

 states only one individual remaining, one single primaeval 

 stem of this wonderful genus. It is supposed not to be 

 indigenous, but to have been planted by a king of Toluca, 

 about five hundred years ago. I found that the spot where 

 the Arbol de las Manitas stands is 8825 feet above the 

 level of the sea. Why is there only one tree of the kind ? 

 Whence did the kings of Toluca obtain the young tree 

 or the seed? It is equally enigmatical, that Montezuma 

 should not have possessed one of these trees in his botanical 

 gardens of Huaxtepec, Chapoltepec, and Iztapalapan, which 

 were used as late as by Philip the Second's physician, 

 Hernandez, and of which gardens traces still remain; and it 

 appears no less striking that the Hand-tree should not have 

 found a place among the drawings of subjects connected 

 with natural history, which Nezahual Coyotl, king of Tezcuco, 

 caused to be made, half a century before the arrival of the 

 Spaniards. It is asserted that the Hand-tree grows wild in 

 the forests of Guatimala.* We found two Malvaceae, Sida 

 Phyllanthos (Cavan.), and Sida Pichinchensis, rising in the 

 equatorial region to the great height of 13,430, and 15,066 

 feet on the mountain of Antisana and at the volcano of 

 Rucu Pichincha.^ The Saxifraga Boussingaultii rises from 



* Humboldt et Bonpland, Plantes Squinoxiales, t. i. p. 82, pi. 24 ; 

 Essai polit. sur la Nouv. Esp. t. i. p. 98. 

 + See our Plantes Gquin. t. ii. p. 113, pi. 116. 



