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XfONADElPHIA LlNN^t. 
DOUBLE MUTABLE HIBISCUS. 
HIBISCUS MUTABILIS FLORE PLExNO. 
T his is the shrub the Chinese value, at that extream rate we are told ; and is, 
what was lirft, and originally called, by our people, the China Rose ; tho’ the 
double ctimfon was firft fecn in Europe. 
The Chinese plant this every where before their doors, and about their pavilHons • 
they raife it in pots of their own Porcelain, and nurfe it as our Florifts do their Auriculas 
and Carnations. They give its figure upon all their ornamental works, paper, varnilli, 
and their peculiar ware. Every place, and every thing is full of it among them. 
Thofe who faw the fmall Sprig which came over to me, loaded with three Flowers and 
as many buds, varied with fuch a wonderful elegance of colouring, could not wonder at 
the eftimation wlicrein thefe people hold the Plant. ’Tis certain, we have nothing that 
comes near it. The Ihape, the colour, and the difpofition of the Petals, exceed vrhatever 
we are able to raife of any kind : and additionally to this, it is larger than almoft any other 
Flower. It covers tlie whole Shrub which produces it for many months in a wonderful 
profufion; and it has all the change ol colour juft nam’d in the fingle kind. 
The Shrub is fmaller than in that Plant, but yet is of fufficient ftature : nature feems 
to have been careful when ftie beftowed fuch elegance upon the Flowers, not to have 
rais’d them above the level of the eyes which ftiould behold them. 
Having the fame happy opportunity of examining together the fingle and double 
Flower in this, as in the preceding Species, it was not difficult for me to difeover the 
courfe wherein nature had proceeded to form the additional Petals. It was the lame 
exacHy, as in that. The body of the column loft itfclf in the double Flower in the 
Bafes of a vaft multiplicity of Petals : but as that part in the fingle bloom of this Species 
is not long as in the other, the Flower, when double, does not acquire any thing of 
that form ; but is as rofes, and other of the large double Flowers, nearly globular. 
When the Bud burfts, to let this vaft Flower forth, the firft appearance ffiews it nearly 
white : ’tis greeniffi toward the bottom, that is, the Bafes of the feveral divifions are 
ting’d a little with that colour, which fhews as fingular and beautiful in them, as we 
fometimes fee it in the fine .Anemones. The body of the Flower refembles a white and 
very thin filk, glofly and wonderfully delicate ; and the extream part, form’d of the 
edges of the Petals, has a line of a Straw’s Breadth; or fomewhat more, of crimfon. 
As the Flower opens, this colour fpreads down the feveral Petals, and becomes ftronger, 
fo that a moderately open’d Flower, is white and red, mix’d in an equal quantity, and 
forming a moft pleafing variety. 
From this time, the red fpreads farther, and becomes more glowing ; till in the laft 
ftage of all, which borders on decay, the whole body of the Flower is crimfon. 
As the Shrub is cover’d thick with Flowers, and ftiews them at once in all thele 
varieties of colouring, and in a thouland gradations between, all elegant, there cannot be 
conceiv d in vegetable nature, a fight more pleafing, or more wonderful. 
Double pslmxtcd Cliina Rofe. 
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