Decandria. 
( I6 ) 
P O I N C ! A N A. 
T here needs no Epithet of Diftin£bion with this Name, fince it is the 
only Plant of its Kind j and unlike every Thing befide in Nature. 
Thefe are a Colle<£hion of vegetable Beauties, and it is hard to fay, 
which of them demands Preference : but this is certainly inferior to none. 
We have heard of it from the East-Indies, and in the West-India Iflands* 
and Seeds fent thence have produced often Plants in our Stoves, but they have 
not flower’d ; they rarely made the Attempt, and when they Ihew’d Bud, they 
perilh’d in the Effort. This flower’d in the Year 1758, at Sion House, under 
the Eye of Lord Northumberland, whofe Stoves are better proportion’d for 
this Service, than any I have feen ; and who has been fo happy in his Attention 
to this Science, as to enrich Europe with more new Plants than could have 
been expected in the Time, and in the prefent State of Botany 5 fo much hav- 
ing been attempted every where, 
Lafl Year it flower’d in ftjch Perfeftion, as this Figure reprefents, and made 
an Effort to ripen one Seed-veffel. ’Tis now in the full Bud again, and having 
more Strength at the Root, will probably accomplifh it. I do not defpair of 
feeing the fame Hand that rais’d the Plant to flower in Britain, produce from 
Seeds ripen’d here a new Succeffion. 
^ ' 1 - V 
This was from China Seed, and there appear’d fbme Difference in the Plant, 
but the effential Characters are all the fame 5 and the Variation is no more 
than accidental. 
No Plant declares its Clafs more evidently than the Poinciana. ’Tis coun- 
ted in the Filaments ; and thefe are wonderfully long and diftinCt ; if all Plants 
fhew’d them thus, nothing would be fo eafy as the fexual Syftem. They are ten, 
and the Clafs is therefore the Degandria, the Tenth in the Linnseum Me- 
thod. 
Every thing confpiresto Beauty in this Plant; the Leaves are elegant in Form 
and Colour; and the Difpofition of the Flowers in a long, loofe Spike, fufficient- 
ly near to make one Body, and yet feparate enough to fhew each diftinCHy; 
The very Cups, as the Flower opens, became colour’d, and make a Part of it ; 
nor is any Thing more elegant than the Manner wherein thofe long and mume- 
rous Filaments are lodged within the Bud till the Flower opens. A fifth Petal 
in the Flower, and a fifth Leaf of the Cup, different in Form and colouring. 
From the others, add to the Singularity and graceful Wildnefs of the Whole ; 
and the Colour is in the higheft Degree rich and glowing. Art imitates it poor- 
ly. The Filaments in particular are as dillinguifhable for Colour as for Form ; 
the Crimfbn of thefe is ill imitated by our beft Tinds. The Form of fuch a 
duller, crown’d with their Antherse, ftruck all who faw the Plant in earlier 
Times of Botany, and they nam’d it Peacock’s Crest from the imagin’d Re- 
femblance. 
SNOWY 
Poinciana Linnseus, Crifta Pavonis Anthorum. 
