PLATE 358. 
Hisiscus suratrensis, Linn (FL Cap. Vol I, p. 177). 
Natural Order, MAtLvacnag. 
A rambling plant with large showy flowers, which are ght yellow with a 
deep red velvety centre. Stems, branches, peduncles and petioles arnied with 
hooked tubercles, and reversedly pilose with long white hairs. Leaves varying 
from cdeltoid-accuminate to 3-lobed, or 5-lobed, the lobes lanceolate and coarsely 
serrate in the larger ones, more finely so in the smaller: hispid on both surfaces, 
veins prominent beneath and those of the larger leaves armed with hooked tuber- 
cles, petioles 1 to 3 inches or more long. Stipules broadly semi-cordate, clasping 
the stem, their margins ciliate with long white hairs, otherwise glabrous: $ to # 
inch long and wide. Flowers axillary, solitary, pedicels 1 to 2 inches long. 
Involucre of 10 spathulate leaflets 6 to 5 inches long, spreading horizontally, each 
having on its upper surface a subulate, erect appendage rising from the hase of 
the lamina, and ciliate with long white hairs; persistent. Calyx 5-lobed ; lobes 
deltoid-aceumninate, connate nearly halfway from the base, tube 10-ribbed, macein 
and margins of lobes thickened, the whole external surface of the calyx clothed 
with long, erect, white hairs, which spring from a tubercular dleep-red base. 
Corolla of 5 oblong petals which are connate at base, margin entire, veiny, spread- 
ing to 24 to 34 inches, yellow with large very dark red blotch in centre, its 
margin irregular in outline. Staminal column connate with petals at base, and 
covering the ovary, 5-toothed at apex ; stamens many, on surface of the column ; 
anthers l-celled, staminal column and free portion of the filaments red and 
clothed with minute glands. Style projecting beyond apex of staminal column, 
5-cleft at apex, its lobes reflexed. Stigmas capitate, pink ; ovary 5-celled, cells 
many ovuled, covered with irritant hairs. Capsule 5-celled, enclosed in the per- 
sistent calyx, loculicidal. 
Habitat: Navau: Coast districts. Wood. 
A not uncommon weed in coast districts, the flowers are large and handsome, 
but the hooked prickles with which it is so plentifully supplied, make it an 
unpleasant plant to handle. The leaflets of the mvolucre are very singular, and 
the Flora Capensis says of them: “The curious form of involucral leaflets which 
mark these two species (H. furcatus and H. surattiensis) may be referred to what 
is called “ deduplication ” and its occurrence in Malvaceae, where the stamens (as 
Dr. Gray has ably shown) are developed in a similar way, is not without signi- 
ficance.” 
Fig. 1, geal and capsule, calyx removed; 2, calyx opened; 3, scale of 
involucel ; ‘4, staminal column ; 5, stamen; 6, style ‘and stigmas ; 7, cross section 
of ovary ; except fig. 1 and 2, all enlarged. 
