white, the blush-coloured, and the branched; the first is frequently imported with other bulbs from Holland, the second and third we have not seen; the latter, if we may judge from Parkinson's fig. in his Parad. is a most curious plant, and was obtained, as Clusius reports, from seeds of the white variety; whether it now exists is deserving of inquiry.

The botryoides differs from the racemosus, in having its leaves upright, its bunch of flowers smaller, the flowers themselves larger, rounder, of a paler and brighter blue.

[158]

Hibiscus Rosa Sinensis. China-Rose Hibiscus.

Class and Order.

Monadelphia Polyandria.

Generic Character.

N^o158.

Rumphius in his Herbarium Amboinense gives an excellent account of this beautiful native of the East-Indies, accompanied by a representation of it with double flowers, in which state it is more particularly cultivated in all the gardens in India, as well as China; he informs us that it grows to the full size of our hazel, and that it varies with white flowers.

The inhabitants of India, he observes, are extremely partial to whatever is red, they consider it as a colour which tends to exhilarate; and hence they not only cultivate this plant universally in their gardens, but use its flowers on all occasions of festivity, and even in their sepulchral rites: he mentions also an œconomical purpose to which the flowers are applied, little consistent with their elegance and beauty, that of blacking shoes, whence their name of Rosæ calceolariæ; the shoes, after the colour is imparted to them, are rubbed with the hand, to give them a gloss, and which thereby receives a blueish tinge, to discharge which they have recourse to lemon juice.

With us it is kept in the stove, where it thrives and flowers readily during most of the summer; the single blossoms last but a short time, yet their superiority arising from the curious and beautiful structure of the interior parts of the flower, compensates for the shortness of their duration.

It is usually increased by cuttings.

[159]

Alyssum Saxatile. Yellow Alyssum.

Class and Order.

Tetradynamia Siliculosa.

Generic Character.