Hibiscus, MONADELPHIA POLYANDRIA, 205 
expanding, armed with numerous stiff, acute, spinous, recurv- 
ed bristles, issuing from small, coloured, glandular papilli; 
amongst the bristles, soft hairs are intermixed, Leaves from 
cordate below, to three and even five-lobed about the middle 
of the plant; and again near the top narrow-cordate ; all are 
serrate and hairy ; the size very various. Petioles almost as 
long as the leaves, and armed like the branches, Stipules 
falcate, lanceolate ; margins ciliate. Peduncles axillary, so- 
litary, one-flowered, shorter than the petioles, and like them 
armed with the same sharp bristles. Flowers large, yellow, 
with a dark crimsom bottom. Calyx, the exterior one about 
two-leaved, each leaflet enlarged beyond the middle; from 
* the base of the enlargement on the upper side, rate a cla-. 
vate, erect, or incurved segment; these form a cancellated 
_ dome over the inner, five-parted, rigid, glandular, bristly, 
hairy calyx; while the exterior broader, but shorter segments 
spread out horizontally. Capsule very hairy on the outside. 
Seeds few, from two to four in each cell. 
I considered this to be bifurcatus. Linn, Sp. Pl. ed. Willd. 
iii, 819. until L reared that very plant, from seed received from 
the Island of Trinidad ; the shrubs are nearly of the same size, 
but in that species every part is less hairy, the coloured glan- 
dular base of the bristles are not to be found; the stipules 
simply setaceous, and the flowers rose-coloured ; consequent- 
ly I must consider this a well marked distinct species, though 
nearly allied in the shape of the leaves and exterior calyx, 
Like many of the other plants of the natural order, Columni- 
Jera of Linneeus, or Malvacea of Jussieu, the bark of this spe- 
cies of Hibiscus, yields abundance of strong, white, flaxen 
fibres; but the prickliness of the = eidens it very trou- 
blesome to handle. 
27. H. Surattensis, Willd. iii, 824. 
Somewhat shrubby, weak and straggling, prickly. Leaves 
from entire to palmate, serrate. Stipules ear-shaped. Exte-— 
rior calyx of from ten to twelve appendicled, permanent leaf- 
