0337 



HIBISCUS. 



Family: MALVACEAE. 



Reproductive system: MONADELPHY, POLYANDRY. 



The garden hibiscus [Translator's note: rose of Sharon, shrub althea], Hibiscus 

 syriacus, LINN, is a small tree that grows six, eight, or ten feet tall. The leaves, alternate 

 on young branches, are oval, cuneate at the base, and divided into three lobes with 

 crenate margins. The flowers, usually red, are solitary. The outer calyx consists of seven 

 or eight linear leaflets; the inner calyx has five sharply pointed divisions. The corolla is 

 formed of five petals, joined at their base and attached to a tube formed by a large 

 number of stamens. The ovary is free and is surrounded by the tube of stamens. The 

 flower is replaced with a capsule of five compartments containing several kidney-shaped 

 seeds. 



VARIETIES: 1. Red flowers. 2. Violet-purple flowers. 3. White flowers with 

 bright red ungues. 4. Diversified flowers. 5. Double flowered. 6. Variegated leaves. 



FLOWERS: from the beginning of August until about October 15th. 



RANGE: Syria and the Levant. 



NOMENCLATURE. English, althea frutex; German, syrische hibiscus; common 

 name, tree mallow. 



HISTORY: This tree, naturalized now in France and in a large part of Europe, 

 appears to have been known only since the sixteenth century. Jean Bauhin, who wrote his 

 General Natural History of Plants about the same time, claims to have seen this tree for 

 the first time in the garden of Jean Robin, the botanist for Henri IV and later for Louis 

 XIII. Embroidery work was very much in demand at the time. 



