ERIODENDRON (from erion, wool, and dendron, a tree; alluding to the capsule being filled with a fine woolly substance). ORD. Malvaceae. A genus of about eight species of very fine stove evergreen trees, with spongy wood. One species is found in the Old World; the rest are tropical American. Flowers large, singly or in clusters from the sides or tops of the branches. Leaves palmate. They thrive best in a rich loamy soil; and should be raised from seeds, sown in a sandy soil, in heat. ERIODENDRON anfractuosum (curled). fl. clothed with silky wool on the outside and yellowish on the inside. l., leaflets five, seven, or eight, entire, or serrulated above, lanceolate, cuspidate. Trunk usually prickly. h. 100ft. West Indies, 1739. ERIODENDRON anfractuosum Caribaeum (Caribean). fl. conspicuous, handsome, and with a delightful, but evanescent fragrance, either solitary or two or three together in a short kind of panicle, for the most part axillary towards the ends of the branches; petals five, of a pale primrose or cream colour, with the part a little above their base of a deep purplish-red, spreading in streaks towards their middle. l. palmate, deciduous; leaflets from five to seven, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, smooth and shining above, opaque and paler, with a faint bluish tinge beneath; midrib yellow, prominent. West Indies. Plant smooth, except the flower. An extremely elegant, but at the same time curious-looking, high tree. (B. M. 3360.) ERIODENDRON leiantherum (smooth-flowered). fl. white, sub-terminal and lateral at the tops of the branches, large, woolly on the outside. l., leaflets five to seven, ovate, cuspidate, quite entire. h. 70ft. Brazil, 1818.