NAT. ORDER. ROSACEiE, 160 



mir hazel, and that it varies with white flowers. It is well known 

 that the inhabitants of India are extremely partial to whatever is 

 red — they consider it as a color which tends to exhilarate ; and 

 hence they not only cultivate this plant universally, but use its 

 flowers on all occasions of festivity ; and even in their sepulchral 

 rites. There are also many other j^urposes to which these flowers 

 are ajaplied, and which, however, is little consistent with their ele- 

 gance and beauty — that of blacking shoes, whence their name of 

 Rosce calceolaria : the shoes, after the color is imparted to them, 

 are rubbed with the hand, to give them a gloss, and which there- 

 by gives them a bluish tinge, to discharge which, they have recourse 

 to lemon juice. 



With us, in this country, it flourishes only as a greenhouse 

 plant, and blossoms very freely, during most of the summer 

 months. The single blossoms last but a short time, yet their su- 

 periority, arising from the curious and beautiful structure of the 

 interior parts of the flowers, compensates well for the shortness of 

 their duration. 



Medical Properties and Uses. The seeds have been considered 

 stimulant and anti-spasmodic ; but are now used only in perfumery. 

 The Arabs flavor their coffee with them. They have also been 

 used to a considerable extent in the adulteration of musk. There 

 is another species, the Hibiscus csculentus, or Ahelmoschus esculentus, 

 which is cultivated under the name of okra, hendee, or go7nho, in 

 various parts of Europe, principally for its fruit, which abounds in 

 mucilage, and is much employed for thickening soup. The leaves 

 are sometimes employed for preparing emollient poultices. This 

 plant has also obtained considerable celebrity as a remedy for 

 croup, taken internally in the form of decoction, and externally 

 applied as a poultice. The decoction is prepared by adding one 

 ounce of the dried leaves to one quart of diluted alcohol : let it 

 stand for fourteen days : then filter. Dose, from two drachms, to 

 half a fluid ounce : that of the powder, from five to ten grains. 



