MAI.VACEi*:. 
65 
Sect. 1 . Cells 1 -seeded. 
I. Hibiscus pentaspermus. Five-seeded, Hibiscus. 
Hirsute, leaves cordate acuminate coarsely-toothed, 
peduncles axillary 1 -dowered somewhat longer than 
the petiole, fruit pentagonal stellato-hispid especially 
along the angles. 
Bertero, De Ccmd. Prod. I. 447. 
HAB. Savannah la Mar, Dr Distin. — Var. (3. Morant-Bay. 
FL. After the May and Autumnal rains. 
Herbaceous, 3 feet in height : branches long, subsimple, ter- 
ete, setoso-hirsute, with a line of pubescence on one side. 
Leaves alternate, petiolate, cordate, acuminate, coarsely toothed, 
3-nerved, stellato-hirsute. Stipules linear. Peduncles axillary, 
solitary, 1 -flowered, longer than the petiole. Leaflets of the 
involueelluin 8. Flowers yellow. Petals externally stellato- 
setose. Column of the stamens of nearly the same length as 
the petals. Stigmata 5, reflected. Capsule pentangular, de- 
pressed, stellato-setose especially at the angles: seeds solitary, 
naked. 
The variety of this plant which grows at Morant-Bay, has 
the flowers white, and the leaves semitrilobate : in every other 
respect it agrees with the plant of Bertero, specimens of which 
I have had an opportunity of examining in the Hookerian 
Herbarium. 
Sect. 2. Cells many-seeded. Seeds glabrous. 
2. Hibiscus Rosa-Sinensis. Chinese Rose. 
Stem unarmed arborescent, leaves ovate acuminate 
glabrous very entire at the base coarsely-toothed to- 
wards the apex subincised, peduncles length of the 
leaves, involucellum 7-leaved. 
Cav. diss. III. t. 69. f. 2. — Rheed. Mai. II. t. 16. — Bot. Mag. 
158. 
HAB. Cultivated. 
FL. Throughout the year. 
This is a favourite plant and universally cultivated in China 
and India, where the flowers are employed on every festal occa- 
sion, as also in their sepulchral rites. It has become with us 
one of the most common shrubs in our gardens, and we are 
possessed of all the different varieties, with exception of the 
double-ivhite. It is mentioned by Rheed, that the root, tritura- 
ted with oil, is employed by the natives of Malabar as a remedy 
in Menorrhagia. The leaves are regarded by the Cochin- 
VOL. I. F 
