NHD52/32

Buddha's hand citron

Citrus medica L. (fingered); Rutaceae family

Original inscriptions: 香橼 (front lower right in ink); Heuong-yeun (reverse lower right in pencil)

Further inscriptions: W. Ch. (front lower left in ink); Citrus medica, digitate (front lower right in pencil)

Fruiting branch of a Buddha's hand tree, also called fingered citron, showing the fruit as it grows on the plant, and the flower members dissected on the lower right corner of the painting. The branch is brown spotted with light grey marks, rough surface. The upper half of the branch is green, slender and smooth, with oblong leaves with serrate margins and alternate veins; leaf blade is dark green, with light green underside. The fruits has a "bottle"-like shape, with an initial smaller globular section from which a longer and wider section departs, characterised by finger-like sections. These sections are depicted "closed", curving inward toward the centre of the fruit, and one slightly detached from the main body. The fruit skin is yellow, with orange dots and green lines running parallel along the length for the fruit. One small section at the end shows the white fleshy part of the fruit, between the fingers. Lower right: dissected view of the flower showing a small oblong bud, with yellow and reddish pedicel, with sepals closed. Further to the right: the pedicel with the pistil, and twenty-four stamens, with white filaments and yellow anthers, beneath of which there are five oblong petals; the petals are white with a red left edge and yellow central part.

Any further details: Pencil underdrawings slightly visible.