238 



MALVACEAE. 



8. HIBISCUS L. 



Herbs, shrubs, or in tropical regions even small trees, with dentate or 

 lobed leaves, and showy, mostly campanulate flowers. Bractlets numerous, 

 narrow. Calyx 5-cleft or 5-toothed. Column of stamens anther-bearing below 

 along much of its length. Ovary 5-celled, the cavities 3-several-ovuled ; style 

 branches 5, stigmatic at the capitate summit. Capsule 5-valved. Seeds reni- 

 form. [An ancient name, used by Dioscorides for the Marsh Mallow.] About 

 180 species, widely distributed. Type species: Hibiscus Trionum L. 



1. Hibiscus Eosa-sinensis L. Chi- 

 nese EosE. Shoeblack Plant. (Fig. 

 264.) A shrub, rarely forming a small 

 tree, up to 12° or 15° high, the young 

 parts sparingly pubescent or glabrate. 

 Leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute at 

 the apex, rounded or abruptly narrowed 

 at the base, 3'-8' long, coarsely unequally 

 dentate; bractlets narrowly linear, about 

 half as long as the calyx; calyx-lobes 

 lanceolate, pubescent, especially within; 

 petals rose-red, purple or white,' 4'-6' 

 long ; capsule about 1' long. [H. Cooperi 

 of gardeners.] 



Extensively planted for ornament in a 

 variety of races, and occasional in waste 

 places. Introduced. Native of China. 

 Widely naturalized in Florida and the West 

 Indies. Flowers in summer and autumn. 



Hibiscus Amottianus A. Gray, Ha- 

 WAiAN Hibiscus, a beautiful species en- 

 demic in the Sandwich Islands, grown 

 in 1913 in gardens at St. Georges', has 

 broadly ovate leaves 4-5' long, their margins crenulate, and pure white 

 flowers about 4' long, the bractlets only about one-fourth as long as the narrow 

 calyx. 



Hibiscus mutabilis L., Changeable Eose, East Indian, a tall shrub with 

 large, broad, angulately-lobed, cordate, stellate-pubescent leaves, the large red 

 flowers changing to white, is considerably planted in gardens and hedges. It 

 blooms in summer and late autumn. 



Hibiscus syriacus L., Shrubby Althaea, Eose-of-Sharon, of western 

 Asia, a shrub with ovate, coarsely toothed or lobed leaves and axillary, short- 

 stalked, purple or white flowers 2-3' wide, is occasionally grown for ornament. 

 The flowers are often double. 



Hibiscus spiralis Cav., Bancroft's Hibiscus, of tropical America and 

 Florida, recorded by Lefroy as grown at the public buildings and elsewhere 

 prior to 1877 and also mentioned by Verrill, is a low shrub, 3° high or less, with 

 ovate to triangular, serrate leaves l'-3' long, and slender-peduncled, red flowers 

 about 1' long. [H. Bancrofiianus Macf.] 



Hibiscus grandiflorus Michx., Large-flowered Hibiscus, North Ameri- 

 can, recorded by Jones, by Lefroy and by Verrill as formerly grown in Ber- 



