MoNADELPHIx\. 
( ) 
DOUBLE CRIMSON HIBISCUS. 
T his elegant Shrub owes its Beauty, as well as Singularity, to the Form 
and Fullnefs of the Bloom; for Nature has retrench’d fomething from 
the high Cfimfon which the Flower fhews in its Angle State. This is 
a Produce of the Gardener’s Art from the preceding Plant ; and, as in fome 
other Inftances, the Ceiinese Gardeners tell us, they can bring on the Change 
at Pleafure : but till they name the Means, we have a Right to doubt. 
The Shrub which yields thefe double FlowCts, is fcarce of half the Heighth 
of that which has them Angle. It forms a thicker Head, and the weak Bran- 
ches are thus fupported in a Length, they would not otherwife bear. It Bow- 
ers all the Year, for no Seed ripens on it : and they are careful to preferve the 
Strength of the Plant, by adding Manure to the Earth about its Roots, and 
frequently croping the Flowers, and the extream Branches. 
■ The Specimen I received, came fo perfect, that I had an eafy and very fa- 
vourable Opportunity of tracing the Courfe of Nature in doubling the Flower : 
this was an Article of the more CurioAty, becaufe the Monadelphous Tribe have 
the Parts on which Doublenefs depends, arrang’d in a peculiar Manner. 
On comparing together the Angle and the double Flower, I could perceive that 
the Ave outer Petals of the Double were the fame with thofe of which the Angle 
Flower was compofed entirely ; only they are, in this, fraaller and more curl’d. 
On laying open the double Flower, its whole Length, I could perceive that the 
Tube or Column, which Hands naked in the Centre of the Angle Flower, was 
continu’d along the Middle of this, tho’ in a very unequal Manner, and bury’d 
by the Exuberant new Petals. 
The Conftrudlion of the double Flower in this, was therefore inftituted by 
Nature on the fame Principle, and from the fame Parts with that of the Tulip, 
Colchicum, and Gloriofa ; namely, from the Filaments only : as thofe Fila- 
ments were in thefe Plants loofe ; the new Petals took their Origination from 
the Bafe of the Flower ; but in this Species, thofe Parts being united into a long 
Tube, the additional Petals rofe from the Surface of that Tube at different 
Heights. 
This explains the peculiar Shape of the Flower of this HibifcUs, which is 
not as the Generality of others round ; but conic, oblong, and growing Anal- 
ler to the Top from a broad Bafe. The extream Length of the tubular Conge- 
ries of Filaments in the Angle Flower, occafions this; for it is the very Body of 
that Tube which breaks off into Petals and Alls up the Flower. The largeft of 
thefe are thofe neareft the Bafe, and they are the moft perfedt : the others^ 
as they rife higher, are fmaller, and they are more wav’d and curl’d. The An- 
thera^ were quite obliterated in the new Petals of this Flower, for the Double- 
nefs was perfect ; but in the double Hibifcus following, I could perceive fbme 
Remains of them. 
This Shrub agrees with the Rofeate NycStanthes, in being fmaller than that 
which bears the Angle Flower ; conArming that Syftem. 
Double China Rofe. Vulgo. 
M U- 
