HIB 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



H IB 



685 



petals five, roundish-oblong, narrower at the base, spreading, 

 fastened at the bottom to the tube of the stamina. Stamina : 

 filamenta very many, united at bottom into a tube, at top 

 (in the apex and surface of this) divided and loose; antherse 

 kidney-form. Pistil: germen roundish; style filiform, longer 

 than the stamina, five-cleft at top ; stigmas headed. Peri- 

 carp: capsule five-celled, five-valved; partitions contrary, 

 doubled. Seeds : solitary or several, ovate-kidney-form. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: double, the outer of 

 many leaves or segments. Stir/mas : five. Capsule : of five 

 cells, with several seeds. The species are, 



1. Hibiscus Moschentos ; Musk Hibiscus. Leaves ovate, 

 acuminate, serrate ; stem very simple ; petioles floriferous ; 

 root perennial ; stalk single, two feet high, or more ; flowers 

 large, purple. It is remarkable in this species, that the flower 

 springs from the petiole of the leaf, as in Turnera Ulmifolia. 

 Native of Virginia and Canada; though Cornutus informs us, 

 that it originally came from the woods of Africa. This, the 

 second, twenty-second, thirty-fifth, and fortieth species, are 

 hardy enough to bear the open air in England ; but the two 

 first, and thirty-fifth, seldom flower in the open air of our 

 climate, unless in very warm summers, though the roots will 

 live when planted in a sheltered situation. The only way to 

 have these plants flower here, is to keep the roots in pots, and 

 to shelter them under a frame in winter, and in the spring 

 plunge them into a gentle hot-bed, which will cause them to 

 put out their stalks early, and when the stalks are so high as 

 to reach the glasses, the pots may be removed into a glass- 

 case ; where, if they are duly supplied with water, and have 

 plenty of air in hot weather, they will flower very well in 

 July, and in warm seasons will ripen their seeds. 



2. Hibiscus Palustris ; Marsh Hibiscus. Stem herbaceous, 

 very simple; leaves ovate, slightly three-lobed, tomentose 

 underneath ; flowers axillary ; rpot perennial ; the peduncles 

 come out singly from the axils of the upper leaves ; they 

 are longer than the petiole, but do not spring from it, are 

 jointed, and support one very large bright purple-coloured 

 flower. Native of moist ground in Virginia and Canada: 

 flowers here in July and August. For its propagation, see 

 the first species. 



3. Hibiscus Micranthus ; Minute-flowered Hibiscus. Leaves 

 roundish, entire, serrate; corollas reflex, oblique; root annual; 

 stem round, upright, simple, a foot high ; flowers minute, on 

 the summit of the stem; seeds lanuginous. Found by Koanig 

 in the East Indies. This plant, like the majority of those 

 belonging to this genus from warm countries, must be kept 

 in the bark-stove, where some of them will make a most 

 splendid appearance. The principal mode of propagating 

 them is by seeds, sown on a good hot-bed in the spring. The 

 plants should be afterwards removed into pots filled with 

 light earth, and plunged into a fresh hot-bed, treating them 

 afterwards in the same way as the Amaranths. The more 

 tender sorts must be plunged in autumn in the tan-bed, there 

 to remain, and to be treated like other tender plants from 

 the West Indies, and allowed but little water in winter. 

 The perennials may be propagated by cuttings. 



4. Hibiscus Microphyllus ; Minute-leaved Hibiscus. Leaves 

 oval, rough-haired, serrate in front; stem shrubby; pedun- 

 cles axillary, solitary, the length of the leaves, jointed 

 towards the top, thicker. Native of the Cape. 



5. Hibiscus Urens. Tomentose : leaves kidney-shaped, 

 crenate ; calices woolly. This herb is slightly stinging ; 

 peduncles usually longer than the leaf; flowers axillary, two 

 or three together, subsessile, glomerate; corolla small in pro- 

 portion to the calix, purple. Native of the Cape of Good 

 Hope. This, together with the sixth, the twenty-fourth, 



VOL. i. 58. 



twenty-eight, and thirty-ninth species, require the protection 

 of the green-house, Cape-stove, or glass-case. 



6. Hibiscus Prsemorsus ; Round-leaved Shrubby Hibiscus. 

 Leaves roundish, tooth-serrate, retuse, pubescent : the leaves 

 are as it were truncate in the middle, crenulate, five-nerved, 

 and soft; the flowers are small and yellow; the capsules 

 small, five together, tubercled, with a point. This beautiful 

 shrub flowers from June to August, and is a native of the 

 Cape of Good Hope. For its propagation and culture, see 

 the third and preceding species. 



7. Hibiscus Cordifolius ; Heart-leaved Hibiscus. Arbo- 

 reous, tomentose : leaves cordate, ovate, serrate ; flowers 

 peduncled, terminating; calix many-leaved, linear, long: the 

 flower is middle-sized. Native of South America. For its 

 propagation and culture, see the third species. 



8. Hibiscus Rigidus. Suffruticose, hirsute: branches 

 simple ; leaves oblong, serrate ; limb of the corolla reflex ; 

 seeds woolly ; the twigs are long, filiform, quite simple, stiff", 

 the stipules erect, bristle-shaped, stiff; and the peduncles 

 axillary, one-flowered. Native of Ceylon. For its propa- 

 gation and culture, see the third species. 



9. Hibiscus Sororius. Leaves cordate, crenate, scabrous ; 

 outer calices round, dilated at the end; stem herbaceous or 

 suffruticose, columnar, hairy all over, supported by trees ; 

 peduncles axillary, the length of the leaves, solitary, pubes- 

 cent, one-flowered. Native of Surinam. For its propa- 

 gation and culture, see the third species. 



10. Hibiscus Cancellatus. Stem weak, rough with hairs; 

 leaves cordate, serrate ; calices globular, having twenty stibu- 

 late_rays, rough with hairs; peduncles axillary, one-flowered, 

 longer than the petioles. Native of Surinam. For its propa- 

 gation and culture, see the third species. 



11. Hibiscus Populneus ; Poplar-leaved Hibiscus. Leaves 

 cordate, quite entire ; stem arboreous. It is a tree fifteen 

 feet or more high, with a trunk larger than a man can com- 

 pass ; capsule globular, berried, and closed ; outer calix 

 three-leaved, caducous; inner obscurely five-toothed, per- 

 manent. The wood is white and soft, and the bark like that 

 of the Lime-tree ; the branches long and spreading ; corolla 

 large, yellowish-white, inclining to green, becoming red as it 

 decays, without scent. Native of sandy soils in the East 

 Indies, where it produces flowers plentifully during the 

 greatest part of the year. For its culture and propagation, 

 see the third species. 



12. Hibiscus Tiliaceus ; Lime-tree-leaved Hibiscus. Leaves 

 cordate, roundish, undivided, acuminate, crenate; stem arbo- 

 reous ; outer calix one-leafed, ten-toothed. This rises with a 

 woody, twisted, pithy stem, from eight to ten, twelve, and fifteen 

 feet high, but has rather a smaller trunk than the preceding spe- 

 cies, dividing into several spreading branches towards the top, 

 which are covered with a brown bark and a woolly down : the 

 flowers are produced towards the upper part of the twigs, from 

 the axils, on peduncles an inch long, branched, and supporting 

 several flowers, forming all together loose spikes; in figure and 

 colour they resemble the foregoing, but they are smaller, and 

 roughish on the outside, nor are they so curled and wrinkled ; 

 on the lower part of the neck, instead of the five-leaved rose 

 which there is in that, we have a large round spot of a 

 dusky red purple colour. Native of the East Indies, and of 

 almost every country within the tropics. This plant flowers 

 in the second year, if brought forward ; otherwise not before 

 the third or fourth. It will bear the open air in summer in 

 a warm situation, but will not make any great progress. 

 In the island of Otaheite they make matting of the bark; 

 also ropes and lines, from the size of an inch to that of a 

 small packthread ; and fishing-nets. They also suck the bark 



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