Botanical Magazine 106 - 1880.pdf - hibiscus.org

DESOB. A villous perennial, two to three feet high, with
stout erect four-angled stems. Leaves three to five inches
long, long-petioled, deltoid-ovate, acute or acuminate, base
truncate with rounded lobes or hastate with acute spreading
lobes, rugose, pubescent on both surfaces ; petiole four to
eight inches long. Raceme simple or branched at the base,
eight to twelve inches long, very villous ; lower whorls of
flowers distant, with leafy bracts; false-whorls six-flowered;
flowers shortly pedicelled. Calyx half an inch long, gluti-
nous, subcampanulate, green below, dark above ; lips short,
broad, acute, lobes bifid. Corolla large, one inch long
and nearly as broad across the mouth, bright blue, except
the white mid-lobe of the lip ; tube three times as long as
the calyx, broad, rather inflated ; upper lip short, bifid,
with acute lobes ; lower with broad short revolute side
lobes, and a large broadly-obcordate pendulous mid-lobe.
Anthers exserted ; connective of sterile anther-cells short.
Style slender, much exserted.•J. B. H.
Fig. 1, Vertical section of flower ; 2, portion of corolla and stamen :•both a little
enlarged.