Tab. 7183. 



HIBISCUS VENUSTUS. 



Native of Tahiti 1 



Nat. Ord. Malvace^:. — Tribe Hibisce,e. 

 Genua Hibiscus, Linn.; (Bentli. et Hook.f. Gen. PL vol. i. p. 267.) 



Hibiscus (Ketmia) venustus ; fruticosus, totus cano-stellato-tomentosus, 

 ramis robustis, foliis amplis longe petiolatis inferioribus 12-18 poll, latis 

 orbicularibus breviter 5-7-lobis, basi profunde cordatis, pedunculia 

 robustis, floribus amplis albia, epicalycis foliolia calyci feqnilongis fere 

 liberis ovato-oblongis subacutis patulis, calycia subinflati lobia brevibaa 

 obtusia 3-nerviia, petalia calyce triplo longioribus obovatis nervosia 

 ciliolatia albis basi roseo suffusis, filamentis brevibus, antheria rubris, 

 stigmatibus inclusis clavatis sanguineis, capsulis seminibusque hirsutis. 



H. venustus, Bhime JBijdr. 71. 



Abelmoschus venustus, Walp. Sep. Bot. vol. i. p. 309. 



A magnificent species, of which the native country is 

 doubtful. It was first described by Blume from specimens 

 cultivated in Java, where it occurs with both single and 

 double flowers, under the native name of Waru Landake. 

 There is a specimen of it in the Kew Herbarium collected 

 by the late Dr. Horsfield, in Java, differing in no respects 

 from that here figured, except in that the bracts of the 

 epicalyx are rather narrower. Its nearest ally is the 

 common H. mutabilis of India and Malaya, which differs 

 in the lobes of the epicalyx being cut into linear segments. 

 In Walper's " Kepertorium " H. venustus is erroneously re- 

 ferred to the section Abelmoschus of Hibiscus, in which the 

 calyx is spathaceous. 



The specimen figured is from a plant grown by A. 

 Kingsmill, Esq., of Harrow, an ardent horticulturalist, and 

 a correspondent of the Royal Gardens, and is supposed to 

 have been procured from the island of Tahiti, It flowered 

 in January, 1879. 



Descr. A large shrub, everywhere clothed with a short 

 close pubescence of stellate hairs; branches stout, terete. 

 Leaves petioled, the lower very large, reaching eighteen 

 inches in diameter, nearly orbicular in outline, seven-lobed 

 and deeply cordate at the base, the upper three to five- 

 lobed ; lobes in all broadly triangular, acute, irregularly 



July 1st, 1891. 



