Hibiscus. MONADELPHIA DODECANDRIA. 199 



manent leaflets. Capsules oblate, very hairy, and lined with 

 pungent bristles. 



Teling. Kanda-gang". 



A native 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 tootlied, smooth. Petioles 

 round, rather shorter than the leaves. Stipules bristle-like, 

 falling-. Peduncles solitary from the axills of the exterior 

 leaves and 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 ; leaflets erect, lanceolate, pointed; margins wav- 

 ed and reflexed. Corol flat. Filaments collected in verti- 

 cels round their tube. Capsule roundish, a litde 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 oflfin very long slips, and is very tough, that oi Abro^ 

 ma avgusta 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 

 ColumniJ'era,?iX\f\ is certainly a strong argument in favour of 

 the Sexual System, 



