Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-04-09
THE FIvE.FlNcERED ORANGE.
One of the Rarest Plants in the World, and
Il Wears Cloves

wears AiOvSSs
One Of the rarest plants in the world
is the five-fingered orange. The jap
anese who, as well as the people Of
China, makes speciality Of cultivating
ornamental curiosities in the vegetable
world, consider this one of the most re-
markable, and value it accordingly.
But a single plant, which has been pur-
chased and brought to San Francisco,
left Japan.
The plant that bears the extraordi-
nary fruit is an eccentric member Of
the vegetable kingdom. 1t Is a dwarf.
ish tree, which when fully grown does
not average more than five or ut most
six feet in height, and is crooked
enough to have been planted in the
garden Of the crooked man spoken Of
by Mother Goose:
'Who walked a crooked mile,
And found crooked sixpence,
Against crooked stile.
He bought crooked cat
That caught crooked mouse
And they all lived together
In a crooked little house"
For croOkeder plant does not exist.
The gnarled trunk is tangled up with
twisted branches, that seem never to
have fully made up their minds which
way to go, so that it would indeed be
difficult task to find two consecutive
inches in the whole tree whose lines of
direction are the same. The conse.
quence of this Is that the plant, which,
If it could be Strengthened out, would
be at least twice as tall, is as broad as II
is high. AS fitting it's cross-grained
character, it has on hand hidden under
it's leaves and located in the most unex-
pected places, an unstinted supply of
long, tough, needle-pointed thorns that
understand their business thoroughly.
But all such little unpleasant pecu'
larities on the part of the five-fingered
Japan orange tree may well be forgot.
ten when it is seen in July, covered
with it's beautiful blossoms, like those
Of an ordinary orange tree, but tinted
with beautiful pink blush Of color
and exhaling most delicate and de-
licious perfume, or later in the season,
when its fruit has ripened, and it looks
as il it was hung about with great vel.
low gloves. These gloves are so redo
lent of the same perfume that scents
the blossoms that the odOr can be re.
cOgnized a full mile from where the
oranges are growing. On close exam.
nation, however, the fruit proves to re.
semble human hand more than does
any glove, lem, slehder-fngered vel
low Chinese hand, with thumb and
forefingers complete, each finger tipped
with the long nail, thought so stylish In
China, hard. pointed and claw-like, ex.
tending n gOodly length beyond the
ends of the digits. The hand is partly
opened, the fingers curved little up
ward, toward the palm, and the fruit
itself very large, especially in proper
ton to the size of the tree that bears it.
often reaching, when full grown, ter
inches measuring from the wrist to
the end of the middle finger, including
the nail. Supports are always neces-
sary, or the weight of the orange would
break the branch upon which 1t grows
The contour of the hand exactly repre-
sents that of human being, the pro
portional length of the several fingers
and the thumb are correct, and even
the cords on the back of the hand of
rather emaciated person are represent.
ed by the divisions of the fingers that
can be traced from the point where
they separate to the wrist.
The fruit, though exhaling so de.
lightful perfume, is not edible, as II
is not properly an orange ut all, but be-
longs to the Usage oranges, of the
Maclura, no member Of which bears
fruit that can be eaten.