[Plate 50.] 



THE GILLIES POL¥CIANA. 



(POINCIANA GILLIESII.) 



A Half -hardy Shrub, of great beauty, from Chili, belonging to the Order of 



Leguminous Plants. 



H>pectftc Character. 



THE GILLIES POINCIANA. — Unarmed. Leaves bipinnate; leaflets 'in about twelve rows on a side, oblong. Eacliis, 

 bracts, &c, covered with a coarse brown glandular coating. Sepals fringed with hairs and glands, disarticulating 

 at the base, closely covered when young by bracts of the same nature. Petals erect. Stamens very long, red. 



Poinciana Gilliesii, Hooker, Bat. Miscell. t. 129, Lot. Mag. t. 4006; alias Erythrostemon Gilliesii, Link, Klotzsch, and 

 Otto, Icones plantar urn, t. 39 ; alias Caesalpinia Gilliesii, Wallich; alias " Caes. macrantha, Delile Ind. Sera. Monsp. 

 1838." 



A LTHOUGH this fine plant is not new, yet it is so very singular as to deserve being 

 fx once more brought before the public by means of a coloured figure. According 

 to Dr. Gillies, its discoverer in Mendoza, an arid province of the republic of Chili, it 

 is <c called by the natives Mai de Ojos, and is very abundant in the cultivated parts 

 of the province, where it has the benefit of the water used in irrigation, seeming to 

 be incapable of living on the dry arid lands which are not under cultivation. Along- 

 the southern frontier of the province of Mendoza, between the rivers Diamante and Atuel, 

 it is found abundantly with other shrubs in sheltered situations; also among thickets 

 along the western side of the Rio Quarto, near the western boundary of the Pampas ; 

 those plants to be found growing in Buenos Ayres owing their origin to seeds sent from 

 Mendoza. They do not ascend farther than to the foot of the mountains, neither are any 

 traces of them to be seen in the province of San Juan, which follows Mendoza to the north, 

 along the foot of the Cordillera of the Andes. The flowers have a sickly, disagreeable 

 smell, and are supposed by the common people to be injurious to the sight. Hence its 

 vernacular name, ' Mai de Ojos.' ,} 



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