2. HIBISCUS SYRIACUS. 



ALTHEA FRUTEX. 



THIS genus furnishes plants of the shrubby and flowery exotic 

 kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Monaddphia Polyandria, and 

 ranks in the natural order of Columniferce. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a double perianthium: outer 

 many-leaved, permanent: leaflets linear: more rarely one-leafed, 

 many-cleft: inner one-leafed, cup-shaped, half five-cleft, perma- 

 nent: or five-toothed, deciduous : the corolla has five petals, round- 

 ish-oblong, narrower at the base, spreading, fastened at bottom to 

 the tube of the stamens: the stamina have very many filaments, 

 united at bottom into a tube, at top (in the apex and surface of this) 

 divided and loose: anthers kidney-form: the pistillum is a roundish 

 germ: style filiform, longer than the stamens, five-cleft at top: stig- 

 mas headed : the pericarpium is a five-celled capsule, five-valved: 

 partitions contrary, doubled: the seeds solitary or several, ovate- 

 kidney-form. 



The species cultivated are: 1. II. Syriacus, Syrian Shrubby Hi- 

 biscus, or Althaea Frutex; 2. H. Trionum, Bladder Hibiscus, Blad- 

 der Ketmia, or Flower of an Hour; 3. H. Rosa Sinemis, China Rose 

 Hibiscus; 4. H. mutabilis, Changeable Rose Hibiscus, or Martinico 

 Rose. 



The first rises with a shrubby stalk to the height of six or seven 

 feet, sending out many woody branches, covered with a smooth gray 

 bark : the leaves have the upper part frequently divided into three 

 lobes, placed alternately on the branches, and stand on short foot- 

 stalks: the flowers come out from the wings of the stalk at every 

 joint of the same year's shoot; they are large, and shaped like those 



