24 
MALVACEAE. 
[Hibiscus. 
4 H. pandurseformis, Burm. FI. Ind. t. 47, fig. 2. A robust, erect 
biennial, with stems clothed with dense spreading hairs. Leaves 
petioled, round-cordate, large, shallowly 5-lobed, irregularly crenate, 
pilose above, tomentose beneath. Bracteoles 8 to 10, linear-spnthulate, 
connate at the very base. Sepals lanceolate, connate in the lower third. 
Corolla 1|— 2 in. long, yellow or purple, hairy outside. Carpels densely 
pilose, as long as the calyx. H. tubulosus, Cav.; DC. Prod. i. 447. 
Mauritius, by roadsides near Port Louis. Australia to tropical Africa. 
5. H. tiliaceus, Linn. ; DC. Prod. i. 454. A tree, much branched, 
with branches and leaves beneath hoary. Leaves long-petioled, firm, 
round-cuspidate, entire, deeply cordate, 4-6 in. long and broad. 
Flowers many, on short erecto-patent peduncles. Epicalyx a deep persist- 
ent cup, with 8-10 lanceolate teeth. Sepals lanceolate, 1 in. long, firm, 
hoary. Corolla large, bright orange, with a dark eye. Carpels triquetrous, 
acute, as long as the sepals, each with a central dissepiment and 3 
naked reniform seeds in each cell. Paritiutn tiliaceum. Wight. Ic. t. 7. 
Coast marshes, Mauritius, especially at the mouth of the Petite Riviere Noire.. 
Seychelles, common in all the islands. Rodriguez. Everywhere in the tropics. 
Vau or Vaur (Seych), 
* H. radiatus , Willd. (H. Lindleyi, Wall. PI. Asiat. Rar. t. 4 ; Bot. 
Beg. t. 1395), a native of tropical Asia, was introduced by Mr. Telfair, 
in 1831, and became naturalized. It is a robust erect biennial with 
branches and petioles armed with small hooked prickles, long-petioled 
glabrous leaves with 5 deep lanceolate toothed palmate lobes, many 
short- stalked axillary flowers, 8-10 long leafy linear bristle-ciliated 
sometimes pinnate bracteoles, 3-nerved lanceolate acuminate bristly 
sepals, large corolla purple or yellow with a purple eye, and densely 
hispid carpels. 
* H. surattensis Linn. ; D.C. Prod. i. 449, universal in the tropics of 
the Old World, is naturalised in Mauritius, at Bois Eouge, in waste 
ground, and is not uncommon in the Seychelles. It is a trailing 
branched biennial, with nearly glabrous stems, armed, as are the' 
petioles, with copious small hooked prickles, long-petioled glabrous 
leaves with 3-5 deep toothed palmate lobes, many ped uncled solitary 
axillary flowers, 10 long narrow sometimes pinnate leafy bracteoles, 
long-pointed bristly 3-nerved sepals, corolla 1 in. long, yellow, with a 
purple eye, and carpels thinly bristly. 
* H. Abelmoschus, Linn. ; D.C. Prod. i. 252, (Abelmoschus moscha- 
tus, Moench), universally cultivated in the tropics, its origin not clearly 
known, is established in Mauritius, at Grrandport, Dr. Ayres . It is a tall 
robust annual, with large long-petioled palmate 5-7-lobed thin pilose 
leaves, 6-12 linear bristle-ciliated bracteoles, calyx oblong minutely 
toothed at the top, corolla 2-3 in. long, deep yellow with a crimson 
eye, and pilose narrow-triquetrous carpels 2-3 in. long. 
