CHEiltOSTI'MON, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Sfercatiacera. C. platanoides, a most singular plant, is com monly called the Hand-Tree, in consequence of its stamens being so arranged as to present no appearance sotnewhat similar to that of a hunum hand. it is a lofty tree, with the habit of a plane, and a trunk about as thick as a man's body. Its head divides into a number of close horizontal branches, which are of a brownish colour towards their extremities in consequence of the number of short fawn-coloured hairs that beset them. The leaves are heart-shaped, slightly 7-lobed, nix or eight inches long, and a little toothed ; they are of a rich deep green on the upper side, and are covered with fawn-coloured hairs on the under aide. The flowers are of a bright rod, and appear at the end of the branches; they consist of three external lanceolate brownish bracts, and a bell-shaped fleshy angular calyx, about an inch and a half deep, bright red inside, covered externally with a russet down ; it is deeply divided into five lobes, and is marked on the outside at the base with five prominences, which correspond with an equal number of little pits filled with a slightly viscid whitish fluid. There is no corolla. There are five stamens combined into a central column like tube, from the apex of which proceed five long slender sharp pointed processes, which are all curved one way, coloured red, and look very much like what one might imagine to be the claws of a demon's hand ; on the convex side these. processes bear the anthers. The fruit is a large woody 5-celled 5-valved capsule, with from fifteen to twenty seeds in each cell.
The singular form of the stamens and their large size have rendered this tree an object of curiosity and veneration iu Mexico from time immemorial. The native Mexicans call it by the unpronounceable
name of Maepal Cocbiquauhitl, which the Spaniards translate Arbol de Manitas, and the English Hand-Tree. What made it a greater object of admiration was, that in all Mexico only one tree was known, which was near the town of Toluca, about sixteen leagues west of the city of Mexico. The flowers of this plant were so constantly gathered by the Indians as objects of veneration that the fruit never ripened, and it was not till the year 1801 that cuttings transferred to the Botanic Garden at Mexico struck root, and began to multiply this vegetable wonder. The original tree must be much more ancient than the conqUest of Mexico, for it has been distinctly described by the Spanish historians. The people of Toluca imagine that the tree is one and indivisible, that no other was ever created, nor any other ever propagated. Seeds however have been produced from the young plants in the Botanic Garden, Mexico, whence they may now be procured without difficulty. Plants of it were thus obtained some years since by Mr. Lambert, of Boyton house, in Wiltshire, and they are not uncommon in largo collections. Notwithstanding the belief of the Mexicans to the contrary, it is really found wild in Guatemala, where whole forests of it were observed near the city of that name by one of the pupils of I'rofessor Cervantes. The Hand-Tree is said to form a very large tree, which preserves its leaves all the year round, and forms a fine shady canopy, flowering in November, December, and January.
(Hernandez, Hist. Plant. Nov. Hisp., vol. ed. 2, p. 531 ; Vetan court, Theatr. Mexic.; Larreategui, Dissect., June, 1795 ; Tilesius in Act. Pelrop., 5, 321, t. ix.; Humb. and Bonpl., Pl. ./Equinoct., i. 85.)