ISO FAMILIAn GAUD'EN FLOWERS. 



quality to the best indigo. The hil)iseus is a mallow, and 

 in India is grown for its fibie, which is called " Ambaree 

 hemp/-' The edible hibiscus [liibificiia escnleniits) is cul- 

 tivated as an article of food in many of the warmer regions 

 of the earth, and the seeds have been used as a substitute 

 for coffee. The celebrated " pepper-pot " of West Indian 

 cookery owes its peculiar attraction to the seed-pods of this 

 species, which are largely used in preparing it. The sida 

 and the abutilon — genera that may be said to be scarcely 

 distinguishable — are, like so many other mallow-worts, pro- 

 ductive of fibre of great strength and the most silky tex- 

 ture. The amateur when enjoying his greenhouse may 

 therefore look to his beautiful abutilons, with their fresh 

 green leaves and bell-shaped flowers, and calculate their 

 money value for the loom or the rope-yard. The considera- 

 tion need not destroy the poetry, for that can be re-es- 

 taljlished by studying the relations of the flowers to the 

 true and undoubted mallows. Finally, and omitting many 

 other uses of the mallows, the cotton-plant {Gos-y/jjnim 

 herhace^im) is a mallow of great beautjr, and possessed of a 

 history that has j-et to be written. Should the future 

 historian of the plant take notice of these humble pages, 

 he will find here a reminder that may be of some value. 

 It is a fact of peculiar interest, and one that carries a 

 cream of humour in the story that embodies it, that cotton 

 has been grown for the manufacturer in this country, and 

 the fibre proved to be of the highest quality. The wealthy 

 and public-spirited Mr. Sam Mendel, formerly of Manley 

 Hall, Manchester, carried out the experiment, and possesses 

 in the concrete the results of the manufacturing process. 

 The details will be found at length in the Gardeners' 

 Magazine of December 16, 1883. 



