Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/181

Rh intense; if yellow or purple, the richest; if white or pink, the purest and most delicate.

There is not a day in the year when fresh and lovely flowers may not be purchased for a mere trifle—roses, with great soft petals folded over each other, vie in loveliness with pansies as large as a dollar; calla lilies, the size of a fan, bloom luxuriant in every ditch; geraniums as tall as a man; sweet pea, eliotropes, camellias, and magnificent poppies, so enormous that one will cover a plate, and so resplendent in color as to rival the far-famed poppy fields of India.

The most remarkable of all the flowers is "el arbol de las manitas" ("tree of the little hands"), cheirostemon platonides, a native of cold lands. The bright-red flowers are well-defined, miniature hands. It has the leaf of the platonos tree, which is common in European gardens. The flower is a popular remedy with the Indians for heart disease. It grows wild, but is very scarce, there being only one in the National Palace Gardens, one in San Francisco Garden, and a few in the valley of Tohica. It has a black seed, smaller than a pea, is very slow of growth, and at ninety years of age has attained no remarkable size or height.

Tulipan—botanical name Hibiscus rosa sinensis, a native of East India. The flowers are both single and double, are scarlet, pale yellow, and chocolate-colored—three varieties. They are indigenous to hot countries, and serve no purpose save ornamentation. The leaf is a beautiful dark green, resembling that of the orange; altogether, it is one of the most gorgeous of all the flowers that are seen in Mexico.

"Flor de noche buena" or Christmas flower (Poinsittia pulcherrima), belongs to the tribe of Euphorbia. It grows about four meters high; the leaves are large and of a dark, lusterless green. When the plant stops blooming the leaves put forth. The flower itself is insignificant, but around it are several bracteas, large, and of a brilliant scarlet color. It begins to bloom at Christmas and ceases in about two months. It is also used by the Indians as a remedy for some of their numerous maladies. It can be grown from cuttings.

Another remarkable plant that blooms in the hot countries as early