114 MALVACE^. ' Sida. 



Annual. Stem a foot or eighteen inches high, somewhat branched from near the base. 

 Leaves 1-2 inches long, and half an inch wide, obtuse or cordate at the base : petioles 6-8 

 lines long. Peduncles articulated near the flower. Calyx hemispherical, 5-angled. Petals 

 obovate, yellow. Carpels with two erect hairy beaks, easily separable when ripe. Seeds 

 dark purplish-brown, smooth. 



Road-sides three or four miles south of Peekskill {Dr. Mead). Probably an introduced 

 plant in the State of New-York. 



5. HIBISCUS. Linn. ; Endl. gen. 5277. SIBISCUS. 



[An ancient Greek name for some malvaceous plant.] 



Calyx 5-cleft, or 5-toothed, surrounded by a many- or sometimes few-leaved involucel, the 

 leaflets of which are usually distinct, but sometimes more or less united. Petals not auri- 

 cled on one side. Stigmas 5. Ovary 5-celled ; the cells with many or few ovules. Car- 

 pels 5, united into a 5-celled loculicidal capsule ; margin of the valves not introflexed ; the 

 cells several- (rarely by abortion one-) seeded. 



§ 1. Pentaspermum, DC. Cells of the capsule one-seeded. 



1. Hibiscus Virginicus, Linn. Virginian Hibiscus. Sweating-tceed. 



Roughish-tomentose ; leaves cordate-ovate, acuminate, unequally serrate-toothed, upper 

 ones undivided, lower ones 3-lobed ; pedicels longer than the petioles ; flowers in paniculate 

 racemes, nodding; column declined; capsule hispid. — Jacq. ic. rar. 1. t. 142; Michx.Jl. 

 2. p. 46 ; Pursh, fl. 2. p. 456 ; Ell. sk. 2. p.l67 ; DC. prodr. 1. p. 447 ; Torr. ^ Gr.fl. 

 N. Am. 1. p. 236. H. clypeatus, Walt. fl. Car. p. 177. 



Perennial. Stem 2-4 feet high. Leaves 2-3 inches long ; the upper and lower ones 

 usually entire, those about the middle of the stem more or less 3-lobed. Flowers about two 

 inches in diameter, numerous : peduncles 1-2 inches long. Involucel of 8 - 9 very narrow 

 leaves. Petals bright rose-color, obovate-cuneate, hairy on one side of the outer surface. 

 Column slender, antheriferous above the middle. Capsule with very acute angles. Seeds 

 smooth : radicle inferior. 



Borders of salt marshes on the north side of Long Island. I never found this plant on 

 Long Island myself, but I saw it in a collection made by the late Dr. S. L. Mitchill, I believe 

 in the neighborhood of Oyster Bay. Fl. August. 



