HIBISCUS CAMERONII. 
( mr. cameron’s hibiscus.) 
class. 
MONADELPHIA. 
ORDER. 
POLYANDRIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
MALVACEAE. 
Generic Character.— Calyx compressed by a many-leaved, rarely by a few-leaved involucel ; sometimes 
connected at the base. Petals not auricled. Stigmas five. Carpels joined into a five-celled, five- 
valved capsule, with a dissepiment in the middle of each valve on the inside. Cells many-seeded, 
rarely one-seeded. — Don's Gafd. and Botany. 
Specific Character Plant shrubby. Stem three feet high, downy. Leaves petiolate ; lower ones 
heart-shaped, and notched ; upper ones with five unequal lobes, of which those nearest the extremity 
are lanceolate, acute, and notched ; and those at the base, roundish, smaller than the others, and 
bluntly notched. Stipules wanting. Flowers solitary. Corolla expanded, somewhat revolute. 
Petals ovate, obtuse, having a wavy margin of a dull buff-colour, tinged with rose, and conspicuously 
veined ; with claws of a bright buff, surrounded with a rich and beautifully rayed deep morone- 
colour. Calyx five-parted, persistent ; segments acuminate. Involucellum usually ten-leaved, 
minute. Filaments united. Style one. Stigmas five, ciliated. Ovary covered with strong stiff 
yellow hairs; cells with about two seeds in each. Seeds black, flattened on one side, with a 
prominent protuberance, containing the embryo, on the other. 
We owe the drawing from which the accompanying figure has been prepared 
to the kindness of Mr. Cameron, the enlightened curator of the Birmingham 
Botanic Garden, whose daughter executed it for us in a very superior manner from 
a plant which flowered in that establishment in the summer of 1840. The species 
will be seen to be a particularly showy one ; and we are happy to find that it has 
been selected by Messrs. Knowles and Westcott, the editors of the late Floral 
Cabinet, to commemorate the intelligent individual above named. 
Having been favoured by Mr. Cameron with a letter respecting the history and 
management of this plant, we prefer giving these in his own words. He remarks 
that “ the seeds from which our plant was raised, were collected in some part of 
Madagascar, by the missionaries, and forwarded to the Rev. J. A. James, of 
Birmingham, who presented them to this establishment in 1837- During the past 
summer several of our plants attained the height of three feet, with a few side 
branches, which produced a flower from the axil of each leaf. Each individual 
