Mokadu,,,,;^ L.kk,, 
FRAGRANT HIBISCUS. 
hibiscus AEELMOSCHUS.' 
T his robuft Plant has every thing except colour to recommend it to the notice 
of thofe who value the Exotic Botany : but nature, to make amends for what flie 
has with-held in that refpeft, has given it fragrance ; an article of value deny’d to all 
the others of its kind. This is not in its Flower, or at bed, it is but faintly perceiv’d 
there ; but is perfed in the Seeds : they have the fweetnefs of mufle without that faint- 
nefs, which attends the animal perfume. This was feldom perceiv’d more delicately than 
in the Seeds which accompany ’d the fpecimen from which the prefent figure is taken • 
and they preferv’d their vegetative power as ftrongly as their feent ; for fcarce any of them 
fail’d. They have produced a multitude of the Plants. 
All that could well be given a Plant in form, nature has beftow’d on this • the 
whole outline of the figure is in its common growth, great and graceful ; the parts are 
all vaft, and the afpeft is at once wild and noble. The form of the leaf, pentangular 
in the upper part, and toward the ground heptangular, rough, ferrated, and with irre- 
gular points, is much above any of the four elegant flower’d kinds which follow ; and tho’ 
the bloom has only a pale yellow for its colour, e.xcept the fmall variation in the eye 
the difpofition of the Petals makes great amends ; for fcarce any kind has them fo beau- 
tifully waved. 
It has the double Cup of all the Hibifci : the outer one has eight Leaves, and the 
inner one is entire at the bafe, but divided upwards into five fegments. The Plant is a 
yard high, and from thefe Cups burft out, at leaft, as many Flowers as there are Leaves 
in a continu’d long fucceffion. 
The Filaments appear in a peculiar form, and conftitute the charadfer of its clafs ; 
which we have not before had occafion to name, and which will be feen yet more dif- 
tinflly in the following Plant. Their number has no place in this peculiar charafter, it 
is their arrangement. They are united at their bafes, fo as to form one regular column, 
or tubular body, thro’ the hollow of which, runs a ftyle, whofe five heads, or ftigmata, 
Ihew themfelves beyond the extremity of the tube. The whole under part of the Fila- 
ments, indeed, in a manner, their whole bodies are thus united into one uniform fub- 
ftance; but their extream points are loofe, and feem fo many fliort Filaments themfelves, 
nfmg from the head of the Tube, and fupporting their Anthers. This union of the 
Filaments conftitutes the charaaer of the clafs. As they form only one body, the term 
is Monadelphia. The common Mallow, and all its kind, have the fame conformation, 
and are of the fame clafs. We fliall illuftrate this in fome fucceeding inftances; and 
, ^ opportunity to fliew what are thofe clafTes whofe conftitution depends 
upon this kind of union in the filaments ; but where they form more than one body. 
ana • . II ^ natiie of the East and West Indies, of the Brasils, and of Surinam, 
■nown in Egypt . it is a wild Plant alfo in China, whence this fpecimen came. 
Hibiliu. foliU fub-pcliaio-cordaiis fcptcmangularibus fcrralis hifpidis. 
Abclmofch Authorum. 
a -',V . a - 
z. y : 
