In this paper, we propose a new access method, called the HG-tree, to support indexing and retrieval by image content in large image databases. Image content is represented by a point in a multidimensional feature space. The types of queries considered are the range query and the nearest-neighbor query, both in a multidimensional space. Our goals are twofold: increasing the storage utilization and decreasing the area covered by the directory regions of the index tree. The high storage utilization and the small directory area reduce the number of nodes that have to be touched during the query processing. The first goal is achieved by absorbing splitting if possible, and when splitting is necessary, converting two nodes to three. The second goal is achieved by maintaining the area occupied by the directory region minimally on the directory nodes. We note that there is a trade-off between the two design goals, but the HG-tree is so flexible that it can control the trade-off. We present the design of our access method and associated algorithms. In addition, we report the results of a series of tests, comparing the proposed access method with the buddy-tree, which is one of the most successful point access methods for a multidimensional space. The results show the superiority of our method.