85 S 
H I B I S 
of the Cape of Good] Hope ; gathered there by Mr. 
Francis Maffon, and introduced into the royal garden at 
JCewini774. It flowers from June to Auguft. 
7. Hibifcus cordifolius, or heart-leaved hibifcus : ar¬ 
boreous, tomentofe; leaves cordate, ovate, ferrate ; 
flowers peduncled, terminating; calyx many-leaved, 
linear, long. Native of South America, where it was 
obferved by Mutis. 
8. Hibifcus rigidus, or flifF hibifcus: fuffruticofe, 
hirfute, branches Ample; leaves oblong; ferrate ; limb 
of the corolla reflex ; feeds woolly. Found by Koe¬ 
nig, in gralfy fpots of the ifland of Ceylon. 
9. Hibifcus fororius, or round hibifcus: leaves cor¬ 
date, crenate, fcabrous; outer calyxes round, dilated 
at the end. 10. Hibifcus,cancellatus, or latticed her- 
bifcus : ftem weak, rough with hairs; leaves cordate, 
ferrate; calyxes globular, having twenty fubulate rays 
rough with hairs. Found in Surinam by Dahlberg. 
11. Hibifcus populneus, or poplar-leaved hibifcus: 
leaves cordate, quite entire ; ftem arboreous. This is 
a tree, fifteen feet high or more, with a trun]c larger 
than a man can encompafs; the wood white and foft; 
and the bark like that of the lime-tree; the branches 
long and fpreading. Native of the Eaft Indies, in fandy 
foils, where it produces flowers plentifully the greateft 
part of the year. It has alfo been found in the South- 
Sea Ifiands ; and was introduced in Kew garden in 1770', 
by Monf. Richard. This cannot be the Hibifcus popul¬ 
neus of Miller, which feems to be the firft fpecies, or Hi¬ 
bifcus mofcheutos. 
12. Hibifcus tiliaceus, or lime-tree leaved hibifcus : 
leaves cordate, roundifli, undivided, acuminate, cre¬ 
nate ; ftem arboreous, outer calyx ten-toothed. This 
rifes with a woody, twifted, pithy, ftem, irom eight or 
ten to twelve or fifteen feet in height, fmaller than a 
man may encompafs, dividing into feveral fpreading 
branches towards the top, which are covered with a 
brown bark and a woolly down. Leaves alternate, of a 
lucid green on their upper fide, and hoary on their un¬ 
der, full of large veins; they are broader and rounder 
than thofe of the foregoing, of a more folid and thicker 
texture, and fmOoth, on petioles of a middling length, 
underneath like velvet. Gaertner agrees with Adanfon 
in the propriety of making a diftindt gends of this fpe¬ 
cies, under the name of Pariti. Thus there would be 
no end of dividing every large genus. Native of the 
Eaft Indies; and almoft every-where within the tropics. 
In the ifland of Otaheite they make matting of the bark, 
as fine.as our coarfe cloth ; alfo ropes and lines, from 
the fize of an inch to that of a fmall packthread; and 
fiflnng-nets. As Forfter informs us, they alfo fuck this 
bark for food, when the bread-fruit fails them ; and in 
New Caledonia the inhabitants frequently fubfift on it, 
though it is an infipid food, affording very little nou- 
rilhment. 
13. Hibifcus fimplex, or Ample hibifcus • leaves cor¬ 
date, three-lobed, repand, quite entire;, ftem arbore¬ 
ous, entirely Ample. Linnaeus informs us that his plant 
was three years old, and that he had not feen the flow¬ 
ers. He afligns Afia for its native place, and yet refers 
to Sloane. Swartz is of opinion that this is a doubtful 
plant. See H. elatus, No. 41. 
14. Hibifcus ovalifolius, or oval-leafed hibifcus : leaves 
oval, and fub-angular ; outer calyxes five-leaved. The 
flowers have the fize and appearance of thofe in H. vi- 
tifolius. The cells of the capfule are many-feeded ; 
and therefore it is not an Urena. 
15. Hibifcus rofa Sinenfis, or China-rofe hibifcus : 
leaves ovate, acuminate, ferrate ; ftem arboreous. The 
China rofe grows in India to the fize of an ordinary tree; 
with us it is ftirubby, the ftem round, eredt, with alter¬ 
nate fpreading branches, that are wand-like, leafy, 
brownilh-green, and nearly fmooth. Leaves alternate, 
fpreading, unequally and coarfely ferrate, entire‘at the 
bafe, five-nerved, bright green, very fmooth, except the 
c u s. 
young ones, which are (lightly downy; their petioles are 
round, downy on the upper fide. Stipules in pairs, op- 
pofite, at the bafe of the petioles, linear, acute, deci¬ 
duous. Flowers axillary, folitary, 'peclimded, large, 
of a deep fcarlet colour. Peduncles twice as long as 
the petioles, round, ftraight ; thicker towajds the top, 
with a joint beyond the middle. Calyx fmpoth ; the 
outer generally in.fix linear acute fegments, fpreading ; 
the inner longer, bell-ftiaped, divided half-way down 
into four or five fegments, angular, ribbed. Petals 
three times as long as the inner calyx, obovate, blunt- 
ifti, waved, furniflied with feveral ribs, paler on theout- 
fide, yellow at the bafe. Stamens and piftils longer than 
the corolla, bent downwards, red, except the anthers, 
which are yellow. Tube of the filaments cylindric, 
with five notches at the top. Germ ovate, fmooth. 
Stigmas five, divaricate, blunt, filky, blood-red. The 
fruit is hitherto unknown. It is extremely common in 
the gardens of China and the Eaft Indies; but its native 
country is not known. Loureiro however affirms that 
it is fpontaneous as well as cultivated both in China and 
Cochin-china; and that it is fo common in the latter, 
that they have entire hedges of it in their gardens. It 
has been long known from its appearance on Chinefe 
fcreens and paper-hangings. The variety with double 
flowers is mod; frequently cultivated both in the Eaft 
and in European hot-houfes; it is indeed rarely feen 
with Angle ones. Rumphius informs us that it varies 
with white flowers; but this is not efteemed, for the'in¬ 
habitants of India are extremely partial to whatever is 
red, which they confider as a colour tending to exhila¬ 
rate. They make thefe handfome flowers into garland# 
and feftoons on all occafions of feftivity, and even in 
their fepulchral rites. They are put to a ufe which 
feems little confident with their elegance and beauty, 
that of blacking (hoes, whence their names of rofce cal - 
ceolariec, and .(hoe-flower. The women alfo employ 
them to colour their hair and eye-brows black. Mr. 
Miller cultivated it fo long fince as the year 1731; but 
he never had it with Angle flowers. It is even now 
rarely feen with fuch in our (loves. With double ones 
it is common, thrives well, and is in blow during the 
greateft part of the fummer. The (ingle flowers are of 
very (hort duration, but this defeat is compenfated by 
their curious and beautiful ftrudture.—See this beauti¬ 
ful tree corredtly delineated on the Plate of Pavo bi- 
calcaratus, or Chinefe Peacock. 
16. Hibifcus Brafilienfis, or Brafilian hibifcus : leaves 
cordate, toothletted ; outer calyx double, the length of 
the other; ftem (hrubby, branches rough with hairs. 
A fmall (hrub, with the appearance of H. mutabilis. 
Native of Brazil. 
17. Hibifcus hirtus, or hairy hibifcus: leaves lanceo¬ 
late-ovate, acuminate, ferrate; branches fcabrous; ftem 
herbaceous. Native of the Eaft Indies. 
18. Hibrfcus phoeniceus, or purple hibifcus: leaves 
ovate, acuminate, ferrate; peduncles jointed, thicken¬ 
ed above the joints ; lobes longer, calyxes naked, feed 
woolly. This is a very beautiful (hrub ; a native of 
Ceylon. It blows in our ftoves the whole fummer, and 
is very ornamental with its deep red flowers. It is fet 
down in Linnasus’s fyftern (edit. 14.) and Supplement, as 
a variety of the foregoing, arifing from culture ; but it 
feems to be a diftindt fpecies. 
19. Hibifcus mutabilis, or changeable rofe-hibifcus: 
leaves cordate-five-angled, obfcurely ferrate ; ftem ar¬ 
boreous. Stem pale, Angle, fmooth, fpreading out wide 
into leafy branches at the top ; the wood refembling 
that of the fig. Leaves the fame fize with thofe of the 
vine, having the roughnefs of fig-leaves, and the form 
of both, or rather of the angular leaves of ivy; whitiflr 
underneath. The flowers at their firft opening are 
white, then they change to a blufli-rofe colour, and as 
they decay they turn to a purple : in the Weft Indies 
all thefe alterations happen the fame day; but in Eng- 
