692 



Seaside Mahoe 



Fig- 643. — Seaside Mahoe. 



The leaves are leathery, heart-shaped, sometimes slightly wavy-margined, taper- 

 pointed, S to 12 cm. long and nearly as wide, the leaf-stalk nearly as long as the 

 blade. The flowers are axillary, on stout peduncles shorter than the petals, which 



are large and showy, yellowish with a 

 purple base, to which color the whole 

 flower changes toward the end of the 

 day; the involucre of 3 to 5 linear 

 bracts falls away early; the calyx is 

 cup-shaped and entire; petals 5, each 

 4 to 7 cm. long; stamens numerous; 

 ovary sessile, 5-celled, containing few 

 erect ovules in each cavity, the 5 

 styles with decurrent stigmas. The 

 fruit is a firm, leathery, roimdish, de- 

 pressed capsule, 3 to 4.5 cm. in di- 

 ameter, 1.5 to 2 cm. high, 5-celled, 

 indehiscent or sometimes opening 

 slightly at the top; seeds 2 or 3 in each 

 cavity, i cm. long and hairy. 

 The wood is hard, pale red or brown, strong, even-grained, its specific gravity 

 about 0.80. It is durable under water and is a favorite for boat-building; also 

 used in the manufacture of furniture and many objects of special local utiUty; the 

 bast of the young shoots is utilized as a fiber; a yellow dye is said to be obtained 

 from its juice and a fixed oil is expressed from the seed. 



This tree is of rapid growth in tropical countries, where it often reaches a height 

 of 15 meters, and is planted as a shade tree, for which its head of dense foUage 

 makes it well adapted. 



The generic name is Greek, meaning divine or exalted. There are about 4 

 species known, all natives of tropical regions; our species is the type. 



Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus Syriacus Linneeus, or Shrubby Althaea, as it is also called, is a 

 native of western Asia, but has been a garden plant for a great many years and is now known 

 in a large niunber of forms. It is much used for ornamental hedges, and has locally escaped to 

 roadsides and waste places from southern Pennsylvania and New Jersey southward; it is usually 

 a shrub i to 6 meters tall, rarely assuming the aspect of a tree unless artificially trained to do so. 

 The leaves are deciduous, more or less 3-lobed, and coarsely scalloped; the white to rose-colored 

 flowers are subtended by an involucre of distinct bracts and have distinct spreading styles; the 

 capsules are oblong-ovoid, each cavity usually containing 2 seeds. 



Mahoe, Paritiutn tiliaceum (Linnaeus) Jussieu, a shrub or small tree found throughout the 

 tropics, also occurs as a shrub on some of the Florida Keys. The heart-shaped leaves are 

 shallowly toothed, abruptly taper-pointed, prominently veined beneath, from i to 2 dm. in diam- 

 eter, and long-stalked; the yellow flowers are subtended by a cup-shaped, 8 to lo-lobed involucre; 

 the styles are distinct; capsules oblong. The bark furnishes a strong fiber, remarkably durable 

 in water, and is made into rope, for local use, wherever the plant is abundant. 



