ORDER POLYANDRIA. 



145 



of 25 feet, and sufficiency large, when hollow, to 

 afford shelter for several negro families. Adanson 

 states that they endure for G or 7 centuries ; but Pro- 

 fessor Smith, who fell an untimely victim in the Congo 

 expedition, thinks there is reason to believe that this 

 tree is of rather a quick growth, from the softness and 

 thickness of its alburnum and woody rings. 



Among the most splendid productions of this fam- 

 ily, indigenous to the United States, is the genus 

 Hibiscus, of which most of the other species are 

 tropical. They are remarkable for the magnitude 

 and elegant colors of their flowers, which appear very 

 similar to those of the Hollyhock of China. This 

 genus produces flowers with a double calyx, the ex- 

 terior cl many (commonly narrow) leaves. The stig- 

 mas and styles only 5 ; agreeing with the 5-celled 

 capsule, each cell containing many seeds. By care- 

 ful dissection it will be found, that each dissepiment 

 of the cells, of the supposed, single capsule, is divisi- 

 ble ; or, that the apparent cells are so many distinct 

 small capsules. One of our finest, and most common 

 species, is the H. palustris, a tall perennial, growing 

 in marshy grounds, and flowering about August. The 

 leaves are broadish-ovate, toothed, and often 3-lobed, 

 with a short and whitish down or tomentum beneath ; 

 the peduncles are axillary, distinct from the petioles, 

 and articulated circularly above the middle. One 

 of our common ornamental shrubs is the Althaa 

 frutcx, or H. syriacus, with both double and single 

 flowers, white or purple, with a deeper colored ring 

 in the centre, as is common in the genus. It may be 

 known, at once, by its shrubby stem, and wedge- 

 shaped, smooth leaves, divided at the summit into 3 

 lobes. 



In Althtca the calyx is also double, the exterior 6 

 to 9-cleft. The capsules are numerous, l-seeded» 

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