TRAILING HOLLYHOCK 



Calyx. — Bell-shaped, nerved, winged, five-cleft, surrounded by an 

 involucre of several linear, hairy bractlets; in fruit the calyx becomes 

 inflated and bladdery. 



Corolla. — Five petals connected at the base, pale-yellow with a 

 maroon eye. 



Stamens. — United into a reddish tube, with anthers along its length; 

 anthers kidney-shaped, yellow; styles united in a tube; stigmas, five, 

 red, protruding beyond the 

 tube of stamens. 



Pod. — Five-celled, enclosed 

 in a bladdery husk. 



Flower-of-an-Hour seems 

 to belong to no man's land ; 

 perhaps one might say that 

 it appears sooner or later 

 in every garden, but is 

 rarely welcomed and in 

 fact usually uprooted. 

 Native to the lands bor- 

 dering the desert, the 

 blossoms seem to translate 

 into form the burning heat 

 of the noonday sun, and 

 when the sun's direct rays are withdrawn, even temporarily, the 

 corolla closes. Consequently the fJower is either a hope or a 

 disappointment, according as one looks at it in the morning or 

 in the afternoon, for once closed it never opens again. 



Gumbo, Hibiscus esculentus, is a mallow of the vegetable gar- 

 den. The mucilaginous properties of the family, in this species, 

 are especially stored in the pod, which is three to four inches long 

 and, when green, is commonly used to thicken soups. The leaves 

 are iive-lobed, rounded, and cordate; the flowers mallows of 

 greenish-yellow with a dark eye. 



Flower-of-an-Hour. Hibiscus tribnum 



291 



