Hibiscus

HIBISCUS s. (gr. marshmallow). bot. genus of Malvaceae, which includes approximately 150 species of herbs, shrubs and even trees, particularly widespread in tropical areas. The chinese hibiscus (hibiscus rosa sinensis) is a shrub 6.6 to 9.8 feet (2 to 3 m) high which produced several varieties, bearing variously coloured double flowers. The swamp hibiscus, (hibiscus moscheutos), called swamp rose mallow in North America, is often very abundant in the brackish swamps and along the rivers of eastern United States. Its height can reach 4.26 to 7.70 feet (1.30 to 2.35 m), it has many pink (seldom white) flowers, with a diameter of 4 to 4.72 inches (10 to 12 cm). It is one of the most remarkable flowers of middle summer. The garden hibiscus (hibiscus Syriacus), is an enormous shrub with crimson flowers, introduced into our gardens more than two centuries ago. In garden supply and nursery catalogues, this hibiscus is known under the name of althæa frutex; it is also called rose of sharon: it flowers in late summer, it can grow in almost any ground and comes in such a wide variety of flowers that it is considered, and rightly so, as one of the most important ornamental shrubs. Hibiscus incanus is a herbaceous plant of Carolina and bears yellow flowers, the scarlet rosemallow (hibiscus speciosus) also originates from Carolina; okra (hibiscus esculentus), also called gumbo, originating in the East Indies and cultivated in the West Indies and in Algeria, bears flowers of a beautiful sulphur yellow, replaced by a capsule containing an edible mucilage and a globulous seed, the size of the tare.

Extract from the Trousset encyclopedia, 1886 – 1891.