Tas. 5098. 
HIBISCUS raptatus; £. flore purpureo. 
Rayed Hibiscus ; purple-lowered var. 
Nat. Ord. MaLvace&.—MonapELPHIA POLYANDRIA. 
Hipiscus (§ Furearia) radiatus ; suffruticosus, caule aculeato, stipulis lineari- 
bus, foliis digitatim 3—-7-partitis, lobis lanceolatis acuminatis grosse serratis, 
pedicellis brevissimis calyce involucroque infra apicem unispinoso rigide 
setosis. 
a. petalis flavis basi atrosanguinea. 
Histscus radiatus. Cav. Diss. v. 3. p.150. ¢.54.f.2. Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 191. 
Roxb. Fl. Ind. v. 3. p. 209. De Cand. Prodr. v. 1. p. 449. Wight et 
Arn. Prodr. Fl. Penins. Ind. Or. v. 1. p. 48. 
8. petalis purpureis basi intensioribus, (TAB. NostR. 5098.) 
The Hibiscus radiatus, of which the ordinary state is to have 
sulphur-coloured petals, was first described and figured by Ca- 
vanilles, in 1780, from plants of which the seeds were sent by 
Sir Joseph Banks to that distinguished Spanish botanist ; but 
Cavanilles does not state from what country they were received, 
or where a native. Willdenow gives no locality. Aiton, in the 
second edition of ‘ Hortus Kewensis,’ speaks of it as an East 
Indian species; but Roxburgh seems only to have known it in 
gardens, observing, “ Native place unknown. Common in gar- 
dens about Calcutta, where it blossoms during the cold season. 
Wight and Arnott also, in their ‘ Flora of the Peninsula of India, 
give no locality, quoting Roxburgh’s statement on this subject, 
and adding, “ In Dr. Arnott’s herbarium 1s @ specimen from Ja- 
maica.” So that some have been led to suppose it was a West 
Indian plant ; and certain it is, we have received specimens from 
Jamaica, but without any special locality ; and of late Mr. Wil- 
son, the intelligent superintendent of the late Botanic Garden at 
Bath, in that island (I say /afe, an awful flood having recently 
overwhelmed the garden with an avalanche of stones), has sent 
iful, and all distinguished 
to us seeds of three varieties, all beaut 
by the colour of the flowers. One is the sulphur-coloured flower 
FEBRUARY Ist, 1859. 
