NAT. ORDER. 
Malvacece. 
HIBISCUS ROSEA. SYRIAN ROSE. 
Class XVI. Monadelphia. Order VII. Polyandria. 
Gen. Char. Calyx, double : outer many leaved. Capsules, five- 
celled, with many seeds. 
Spe. Char. Leaves, sub-peltate, cordate, seven-angled, serrate. 
Stem, hispid. 
The root of this beautiful plant is perennial, fleshy, long, 
whitish, and furnished with a large number of wire-like fibres : 
the stem is erect, round, hairy, strong, branched, and rises from 
two to three feet in height ; the leaves are numerous, oval, divided 
into five or seven lobes, unequally serrated or notched at the 
edges, and stand upon long, round, hairy footstalks ; the Jlowers 
are large and of a beautiful changeable scarlet color, consisting 
of five petals, which are inversely heart-shaped, sinuated at the 
apex, of a yellowish pink or scarlet color, painted with veins of a 
deeper hue, and stand upon slender peduncles, which proceed 
from the bottom of the leaf-stalks ; the calyx is double ; the outer 
composed of three, and the inner of five oval pointed hairy seg- 
ments ; the stamens are numerous, united at the base in a cylin- 
drical form ; above separate, bending downwards, and furnished 
with kidney-shaped anthers ; the germen is roundish ; the style is 
cylindrical, short, and furnished with many filiform stigmas ; the 
seeds are numerous, of a kidney shape, and covered with a coat, 
or arillus, which opens inwardly. This plant grows wild in hedges 
and waste grounds, and flowers from June till September. 
Vol. iii. —46. 
