Hibiscus. MONADELPHIA POLYANDUIA. 207 



Sill) rotund, acutely serrate, dentate. Flowers racemed, pure 

 Avhite tlirouglionf. Fxferior cahjx caducous; inner spathi- 

 form. Capsule linear-oblong-. 



Of what country this plant is a native, I have not yet been 

 able to ascertain. It made its appearance in the Botanic gar- 

 den in IT.OS, when many chests of plants were brought into 

 it from the Moluccas ; and 1 diink 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 Decend>er and 

 January, soon after which the plants perish. Since writing 

 the above. Dr. J. Glass found it wild on the Rajniahl 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, petioleil, reflexed, serrate, three, five, or 

 seven-lobed; lobes 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 w ithoutand 

 within ; while green, covered w ith minute, pellucid, clammy 

 drops. Seeds nunierous, 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 (he descriptions and fi- 

 gures of H. Jiculneus that I have met with, than the above 

 described, otherwise I might have taken it for that plant. 



