Botanical Magazine 106 - 1880.pdf - hibiscus.org

with imperfect anthers without pollen, and a well-formed
trigonous ovary bearing three short stigmas fimbriate at the
apex. Besides the form figured here, a similar one in habit
and foliage is grown at Kew, with the flowers all male,
rose-coloured, much more loosely racemose, and with a
tendency in the racemes to throw out very short lateral
branches : this plant I suspect to be the male of P. com-
pactum.
The only specimen of P. compactam which I have found
in the Kew Herbarium were fruiting ones collected on the
mountain Fusiyama, received from Sir R. Alcock, K.C.B.,
in 1860, from whom, in all probability, the seeds also were
procured ; like all its allies, it flowers very late in the season,
the specimen figured being in blossom almost till the end
of September.
DESCE. Stems prostrate, one to two feet long, with
ascending and suberect branches as high, deeply grooved,
dark red or red-brown, puberulous towards the tips, as are
the petioles and racemes. Leaves one and a half to two
inches long and broad, rigid, deltoid or very broadly ovate,
base broadly truncate or subcordate with a very open sinus,
cuspidate, margins waved, uppermost sometimes cunéate at
the base ; petiole a quarter to half an inch long, stout, red ;
ochrea very short, deciduous. Racemes axillary and terminal,
two to three inches long, strict, erect, solitary or several
together ; rachis slender with close-set short obtuse many-
flowered bracts. Male flowers white, on slender pedicels ;
perianth one-tenth-of an inch long, subglobose ; fruiting
perianth one-third of an inch long, cunéate, truncate ; three
outer segments with a broad membranous longitudinal dorsal
wing produced downwards on the pedicel. Stamens eight,
imperfect, filaments half as long as the perianth ; anthers
small, without pollen. Ovary ellipsoid, trigonous; stigmas
three, short, truncate, tips fimbriate.•J. I). II.
Fig. 1, fruiting perianth of female flower ; 2, the same laid open, showing the
stamens and ovary, both enlarged ; 3, fruiting raceme of the natural size.