Calyx the limb 5-cleft, with oblong, concave, thin, membranous,
pale greenish-yellow segments, copiously frmged
and glandular, cut at the apex, the lower one twice larger,
and somewhat inflated ; tube turbinate, of a thicker substance,
green, almost continuous with the peduncle. Petals 5,
alternating with the calyx, nearly equal, sulphur-coloured,
an inch long, spathulate, slightly obcordate, wavy and
crumpled, thin, many-nerved, longer than the calyx ; claws
thicker, rather fleshy, glabrous, green. Stamens \Q, separate.
Filaments long and slender, awl-shaped, bright red, naiiy
below, 3 inches long, connivent at the base, 5 rather shorter.
Anthers dark-red, incumbent, attached by the middle ot two
parallel cells, inserted on a broad connectivum _ Ovarium
compressed, densely hairy, on a very short thick stalk,
surrounded by the base of the calyx. Style rather longer
than the stamens, and about the same colour and thickness,
but more hairy. Stigma vertical, cup-shaped.
We have seldom had to record so interesting a production
as the present, and one so eminently deserving the attention
of the cultivator. . i • i, n a
Our drawing was taken from a specimen whiM flowered
in Mr. Knight’s choice collection, King’s Road, Chelsea, m
the end of July last, where the tree has stood for several
years placed near the wall of a stove, which it now considerably
overtops, and even exceeds the height that it
usually attains in its native country. From the tree being
deciduous, and ripening its shoots early in the autumn, we
may infer that it will endure our winters in situations less
favourable than the one at Mr. Knight’s. _
It is abundant on banks of rivers, and in irrigated grounds
about Mendoza in South America, where it was d isco v e r^
by our late lamented friend. Dr. Gillies, after whom the
species has been so deservedly named, and from seeds broug i
home by him the plant was raised in 1829. The natives call
it “ Mai de Ojos” from an idea that its flowers, which have a
sickly smell, are injurious to the sight.
The uniform and nearly sessile petals, and dry pod, would
seem to point it out as the type of a new genus. .
The genus Poinciana was named after JVl. de 1 oinci.
Governor General of the Antilles, about the middle of the
seventeenth century. D . Don.