Hibiscus, MONADELPHIA POLYANDRIA. 207 
sub-rotund, acutely serrate, dentate. Flowers racemed, pure 
white throughout, Exterior calyx caducous ; inner spathi- 
form. Capsule linear-oblong. 
Of what country this plant is a native, | have net yet been 
able to ascertain, It made its appearance in the Botanic gar- 
den in 1798, when many chests of plants were brought into 
it from the Moluccas ; and I think it is more than probable, 
the seed came accidently amongst the earth of those plants. 
Be this is may, the plant thrives luxuriantly with little or no 
care ; seed-time, the beginning of the rains ; it is in blossom 
about their termination, and the seed ripens in December and 
January, soon after which the plants perish, Since writing 
the above, Dr. J. Glass found it wild on the Rajmahl hills, 
Root annual, ramous, Stem perfectly straight, with a few 
straight branches, when the plants stand single, or at a dis- 
tance, otherwise simple. Bark pale green, and uncommonly 
smooth, Height of the whole plant from six to fourteen feet. 
Leaves alternate, petioled, reflexed, serrate, three, five, or 
seven-lobed; /obes of a roundish-obovate shape, smooth on 
both sides; size very various. Petioles as long as the leaves, 
Sometimes most slightly armed with minute prickles, other- 
wise they are very smooth. Stipules filiform, caducous. 
Flowers short-peduncled, solitary in the exterior axills, and 
on long, curved, terminal racemes, they are pretty large, and 
white in every part. Calyx ; outer perianth of five or six, 
small, subulate, villous, caducous leaflets, dropping long 
before the corol expands; the inner one spathiform, villous ; 
mouth five-toothed, deciduous, Corol as in the genus, Cap- 
sule oblong, five-angled, villous, and hairy, both without and 
within ; while green, covered with minute, pellucid, clammy 
dupe. Seeds numerous, round, hairy, and of a dark black- 
ish brown colour, 
On the coast of Coromandel I have often seen a species, : 
which I think agrees better with all the descriptions and fi- 
gures of H. ficulneus that I have met with, than the abov 
Seperilied,, otherwise I might have taken it for that plan 
