HIBIS'CUS AFRICA'NUS. 
AFRICAN HIBISCUS. 
Class. Order. 
MONADELPHIA. POLYANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
MALVACEAi. 
Native of 
Height. 
1 Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
Africa, j 
\\ feet. 
1 June, Oct. 
Annual. 
in 1826. 
No. 703. 
The name Hibiscus is of very uncertain origin. 
This is a particularly pleasing flower, in which 
the mellow pale tint, and the deep rich marone, 
are nicely contrasted; the latter giving a brilliant 
effect to its gilded pistil. There is an old in- 
habitant of the flower garden, very nearly allied to 
the present plant, known as the Hibiscus trionum, 
or Bladder Ketmia, which, as Gerard says, hath 
f 
very sweet and beautiful flowers;” but they are 
not so large, nor do they continue so long as those 
of Africanus. Our favourite old author remarks of 
his plant, that ‘"When it hath receiued the beames 
of the Sun for two or three houres, whereon it 
should seeme to reioice to look, and for whose de- 
parture, being then vpon the point of declension, 
it seemes to grieue, and so shuts vp the floures that 
were open, and neuer opens them againe.” The 
Hibiscus Africanus, on the contrary, is not merely 
the flower of a day; it, however, requires the full 
sun to open it entirely. It demands only the care 
of a common annual, and will flourish in any 
garden soil; but a warm situation will best encou- 
rage the complete expansion of its blossoms. 
Don’s Syst. Bot. 1, 483. 
