H 
[Prate 106.] 
THE CHINESE ALTHZEA FRUTEX. 
(HIBISCUS SYRIACUS; VAR. CHINENSIS.) 
A beautiful Stove Shrub, native of CHINA, belonging to MauLowwonrs. 
Hibiscus syriacus : Linneus. 
HE common Althea frutex is said upon no very good authority to be a native of Palestine, and 
even of Carniolia; but it does not appear to have been known to the Greeks, and Forskühl 
expressly states that it is a garden plant in Egypt. Colitur in hortis Egypti ; floribus splendidis ; 
aut totis violaceis, vel albis, basi rubris. (Fl. egypt. arab., p. 125.) Tts real country must in truth be 
regarded as unknown ; it however appears to be very common in the East of Asia, but always cultivated. 
Thunberg tells us that it is grown every where in Japan for live fences, and that it is the Kin of 
Keempfer. Of this Ki» the latter author tells us that it is also called Mu Kunge, that it is 
cultivated, and has in one state single flowers, blue shading into purple, flore in purpureum caeruleo, 
in another state double tinged with blue, cerudeato, with dense crisp petals, but neither style nor 
stamens. (Ameen. exot. 858.) 
One of these forms is now before the reader in the accompanying plate, drawn in the garden of 
the Horticultural Society, where it had been raised from seeds, presented to the Society by John 
Reeves, Esq., in June, 1844, under the name of Koorkun Vellory. 
The Editor of the Society's Journal speaks thus of the plant itself :— 
“ I think there can be no doubt that this, although certainly Chinese, is a mere variety, and not 
a well marked one, of Hibiscus syriacus. It has large violet flowers, with a crimson eye, and its 
leaves are larger, thinner, and more smooth than in the shrub out of doors, owing, perhaps, to 
VOL. IlI AA 
