Coral Flower

Coral Flower, or CORAL TREE (Erythrina), a tropical and subtropical genus of papilionaceous trees and shrubs, with long racemes of beautiful flowers of a rich dull crimson or a scarlet colour, resembling coral. Some species are thorny, and are hence used for hedges, notably E. corallodendron in the West Indies, and E. indica in the East. The wood is so light and spongy that it is used not only for portable objects, such as ladders, but even as a substitute for cork.—Jatropha multifida, a totally different plant, of the order Euphorbiaceæ, is also sometimes called Coral Tree.