ROSE MALLOWS 
M. tbifida (thrice-cleft). Stem erect, 3 feet, with small, slightly 
three-lobed leaves and rosy-purple or white flowers. July to September. 
The plant usually grown in gardens is the var. grandifiora, taller, more 
robust, and with larger flowers (Plate 47). There is also a var. alba. An 
annual, native of Spain and North Africa, introduced 1808. 
The species of Malope and Lavatera will succeed in 
any ordinary garden soil, but they will do best where that 
soil is of a sandy nature, and in a sunny position. Seeds may be sown 
in the open border in April or May and the young plants thinned out to 
ten inches apart. Their proper station is at the back of the border, 
where they make a good background for smaller subjects. 
Description of M. trifida, var. grandifiora , is shown at B. A 
Plate 47 represents Lavatera trimestris, and the figures of details 
also relate to this species. 1 shows the cohesion of the filaments to 
form the staminal tube; 2, a section of the flower after removal of the 
petals; 4, the seed, natural size and enlarged; 5, a seedling. Fig. 3 is 
the seed of Malope. 
ROSE MALLOWS 
Natural Order Malvaceae. Genus Hibiscus 
Hibiscus (’ ibisJcos ,' the old Greek name for the Marsh Mallow). 
A genus of about a hundred and fifty showy herbs, shrubs or 
trees, chiefly natives of the tropics. Its characters are in the main similar 
to those of the allied genera Lavatera and Malope, but the staminal 
tube does not bear anthers fully to the upper extremity, the style is five- 
branched, and the epicalyx consists of many bracts, rarely so few as 
four or five. The fruit is five-celled with more than one seed in each cell. 
Hiatory The cultivation of Hibiscus in our gardens extends 
back for fully three hundred years, and appears to have 
begun with H. syriacus, introduced from Syria, and H. trionum, from 
Italy. Nearly a century later (1690) H. mutabilis came from the 
East Indies; and among other of the numerous species cultivated to-day, 
H. rosa-sinensis was introduced from the East Indies in 1731, the var. 
palustris of H. roseus from North America in 1759, and its var. militaris 
in 1804. H. coccineus came from Carolina about a hundred and twenty 
years ago, H. status from Jamaica in 1790 and H. marrrwratus from Mexico 
in 1854. Some of the species were imported, not alone or chiefly on 
accountof their showy flowers,but because of some medicinal or commercial 
use. Thus from the inner bark of H. datus and others, “ Cuba-bast ” is 
