CHERIOSTEMON PLANTANOIDES-HAND FLOWER TREE- 



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CLASS, MONADELPHIA ; ORDER, PENTANDRIA. 

 NATURAL ORDER, STERCULIACEJE. 



GEN. and SPEC. CHAR Calyx sub-campanulated, five parted 

 Bracteas three, deciduous. Stamens five, filaments united at the 

 base into a cylinder, separated about the middle of their length, in 

 the form of a bird's claw or monkey's hand. Style one, with an 

 acute stigma. Capsule woody, with five cells, oblong, containing 

 many small seeds. 



The beauty and rare configuration of this flower, has long made 

 it celebrated over the botanical world. In an excellent work by 

 Jacquin, professor of botany at Vienna, on the choice plants of 

 America, he enumerated this as one of the most curious and 

 wonderful; from which notice it became generally known, and 

 great numbers of these plants were ordered from Mexico, and 

 cultivated in the gardens of Europe. We find in the narratives 

 of the travels of those whom the love of adventure, incited to 

 explore 'the fairy regions of the New World, strange accounts of 

 the tree, that carried a red flower in the months of September and 

 October, formed so mysteriously in the figure of a hand, that the 

 palm, joints, nails, and every other part were copied as exactly, 

 some said more so, than the most skilful sculptor could have done ; 

 and many times, Unged with a spirit of the marvellous, showing that 

 they fully credited the accounts given by the Mexicans of its 

 supernatural origin. 



This tree, from the peculiar character of its flower, had the 



