208 XXV. MALVACE^. (masters). [Hibiscus. 



Seacoast of both east and west tropical Africa. 



Upper Guinea. Seuegarnbia, Reudelot ! Sierra Leone, T. Vogel ! Niger, Barter ! 

 Fernando Po, Barter! 



IMLozamb. Distr. Zambesi coast, Dr. Kirk ! Querimba, Peters. 



This tree is also found along the coasts of Natal, Southern Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, 

 Madagascar, and in similar situations in India, Java, Brazil, the W. Indies, the islands of 

 the Pacific, and N. Australia. The bark of this tree is said by Dr. Kirk to yield the Milola 

 fibre to the natives near the Luabo. The flowers are yellow in the morning and become red 

 towards evening. A variety with lobed leaves looks distinct, but as leaves of this form oc- 

 cur on the same trees with those of the ordinary form, there are no grounds for making a 

 distinct variety even. 



34. H. quinquelobus, Bon, Gen. Syst. i. 482. A small tree with 

 purplish branches, covered with stellate toineiitum. Leaves on short stalks, 

 5- angled, slightly cuspidate, denticulate, palmi-nerved, leathery, rough, with 

 sparse stellate tomentum. Stipules small, lanceolate, deciduous. Flower- 

 stalks axillary, as long as the petioles, branched and bearing a tuft of small 

 flowers. Epicalyx cup-shaped, divided into 10 linear teeth, half the length 

 of the bell-shaped 5-parted calyx, whose segments are lanceolate, downy ex- 

 ternally, and half the length of the corolla. Capsule ovoid, pointed, 5 -celled. 

 Seeds covered with small stellate hairs. — Paritium sterculiafoiium, Guill. et 

 Perr. Fl. Seneg. i. 60. t. 13. P. virgatum, Guill. et Perr. 1. c. P. quin- 

 quelobum. Hook. f. PI. Nigrit, 227. 



Upper Gainea. Senegal, Afzelius ! Perrottet ! Sierra Leone, Don ! Smeathman ! 



The typical specimen of Perrottet's preserved in the British Museum has rather larger 

 thinner leaves than are found on the specimens from other collectors, but this depends pro- 

 bably on the locality where the plant grows. This species, by its truly 5-celled capsule, 

 is intermediate between the true Hibisci and the so-called genus Paritium, of which H. 

 tiliaceus is the representative. 



H. MuhamediSj Webb, Frag. Fl. Mthiop. 46. Stem erect, short, somewhat 

 pilose. Stipules small, linear, acute ; lower leaves ovate, rounded at the base, 3-nerved, 

 glabrous, dentate, teeth setigerous. Leafstalks pilose, shorter than the leaves; upper 

 leaves subsessile, lanceolate, obscurely dentate, upper ones linear. Flowers terminal, 

 solitary. Epicalyx of 7 short, linear-lanceolate segments. Calyx 5-cleft ; segments lan- 

 ceolate, acute, pilose, three or four times shorter than the sulphur-coloured corolla. Cap- 

 sule unknown. 



Nile Land. Y^orMzn {Webb, I.e.). 



This species is only known to me by "Webb's description above cited. Webb speaks of his 

 specimen as unique and as being allied to H. ovatus, Cav. Diss. iii. 14;^. t. 50. f. 3. 



12. FUGOSIA, Juss.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 208. 



Epicalyx of 3-oo small or deciduous bractlets. Calyx 5-cleft. Staminal 

 column truncate or toothed at the top. Ovary 3-4 -celled ; cells 3-oo-ovuled. 

 Style club-shaped, furrowed, or divided into 3 or 4 club-shaped stigmas. 

 Capsule loculicidally 3-4-valved. Seeds obovoid, glabrous, pubescent or 

 woolly. Albumen very thin. Cotyledons bi-tri -plicate, auricles concealing 

 the base of the straight radicle, not dotted. — LTndershrub with palraately- 

 lobed leaves, yellow flowers, and calyx sprinkled with black dots. — Cienfu- 

 gosia, Cav. Diss. iii. 174. t. 72. f. 2. 



A small genus, some of the species of which are found in Australia and S. America. 



