10 MR. B. D. JACKSON ON HIBISCUS PALUSTRIS 
his plates (* Dissertationes,' tab. 65). In 1806 Thore, in Loiseleur- 
Deslongchamps's * Flora Gallica, described a species of Hibiscus 
whieh grew in the department of the Landes as ZT. roseus, which 
name is to be found in the most recent local floras of France, 
e. g. Grenier and Godron (vol. i. p. 296), and of Italy, where it 
also grows, e. g. Parlatore (vol. v. p. 111). In 1838 Torrey and 
Gray (Flora, p. 237) merged the species ZI. palustris and JH. 
Moscheutos, alleging that the chief character, the union of the 
petiole and peduncle, was inconstant even in the same plant; 
that therefore these forms could not be kept apart. The present 
aspect of affairs is, that whilst Zf. 7Moscheutos and H. palustris 
are considered to be one species by American botanists, 
H. roseus is in our European floras retained as distinct. I have 
examined the specimens of these species in the herbaria of Kew, 
the British Museum, of Linneus, and of Smith; and the conclu- 
sion I have arrived at is, that whilst average specimens of H. 
Moscheutos and H. palustris are abundantly distinct, H. roseus is 
so near H. palustris as to be in many cases indistinguishable 
from it. 
H. Moscheutos has the leaves decidediy lanceolate, upper sur- 
face nearly glabrous, the lower covered with fine pubescence. 
H. incanus, Wendl., has close relation to this by its general facies 
and its adnate peduncle; but the pubescence is very dense, as in 
our own Althea officinalis, and marks the plant at first sight. 
In H. palustris the leaves are more broadly ovate, the surfaces 
more nearly similar to each other in appearance, and the pubes- 
cence is rougher. 
In H. roseus the leaves are inclined to be cordate, thus rece- 
ding from the Moscheutos type; and the surfaces are precisely 
like those of H. palustris. 
In all three species the lower leaves are apt to become tricus- 
pidate. 
I have very little doubt that H. roseus of Thore is the plant 
which the earlier writers had in view when speaking of H. palus- 
iris. An ltalian specimen is preserved amongst the dried plants 
of Cesalpini, which were purposely put together in illustration of 
his system, dating from 1563, and forming the earliest type-collec- ` 
tion known. Parlatore (ut suprà) and Caruel CG Illustratio in Hor- 
tum Siccum,’ p. 110) cite this as having been recognized by them 
as H. roseus, Thore. Lobel, in 1570, speaks of the plant as 
* Althea palustris Cytini flore;" and his figure with the cordate 
