Hibiscus. MONADELPHIA DODECANDRIA, 199 
manent leaflets, Capsules oblate, very hairy, and lined with 
pungent bristles, 
Teling. Kanda-gang. 
' Anative of the mountainous parts of the Circars, where the 
natives use the bark as a substitute for hemp. Flowering 
time the rainy season, 
Stem arborescent. Branches ascending. Leaves alter- 
“nate, petioled, slightly three-lobed, from three to five-nerved, 
scollopped, waved, sometimes toothed, smooth, _ Petioles 
round, rather shorter than the leaves. S¢ipu/es bristle-like, 
falling. Peduneles solitary from the axills of the exterior 
leavesand terminal, as long as the petioles, round, one-flower- 
ed, articulated near the apex. Flowers large, rose-coloured, 
with a dark purple centre. Calyx ; exterior from eight to 
ten-leaved ; /eaflets erect, lanceolate, pointed; margins wav- 
ed and reflexed. Corol flat, Filaments collected in verti- 
cels round their tube. Capsule roundish, a litile oblate, five- 
ribbed, covered with much strong, gray, burning hair; the 
sutures on the inside are also thickly lined with stiff hairs. 
The mountaineers use the bark of this species for cordage. 
I have often observed that the.bark of most of the Indian 
' plants of this class, particularly of this family, might be em- 
ployed for the same purposes as hemp. It almost always 
peels off in very long slips, and is very tough, that of Abro- 
ma augusta is particularly so, and is of the same natural 
order. 
In India I have also often observed with admiration, that 
those flowers with pistils longer than the stamens, and that are 
not naturally pendulous, stand in an oblique, or nearly per- 
pendicular direction; this obliquity is further assisted by the 
curvature of their pistils, which together with the oblique 
direction of the flower, generally bring their stigmas immedi- 
ately below the anthers. This structure is most conspicuous 
in the flowers of those plants belonging to the natural order 
Columnifera, and is certainly a strong argument in favour of 
the Sexual System. : 
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