Botanical Magazine 106 - 1880.pdf - hibiscus.org

Tauria and the Caucasus to Persia and the Altai mountains,
ascending: to 9000 feet in the Caucasus, and the var. cordi-
folia inhabits the mountains of Armenia. I am, unfortu-
nately, unable to say whence the specimen here figured was
procured, the drawing, with notes attached, having been
lost in London after having been made use of by the
colourist; it is, however, a well-known cultivated plant
under the name of G. gélida, but it does not at Kew arrive
at the stature of the specimen figured.
DESCR. Stems several, ascending from a stout stock a
foot high, stout, leafy throughout. Leaves gradually larger
upwards, lowest a quarter of an inch long, upper one to
one and a half inch long, all ovate-cordate, subacute,
five-nerved, dark green above, spreading or deflexed,
coriaceous, the upper often forming a sort of involucre.
Flowers very numerous, in a compact rather elongate head,
sessile or very shortly pedicelled, nearly two inches long.
Calyx-lobes narrowly linear, equalling or shorter than the
tubes. Corolla dark blue, clávate ; lobes five, small, ovate,
subacute, the membranous folds multifid. Stamens inserted
about the middle of the tube. Stigmas short, recurved.
Capsule shortly stalked.•/. D. H.
Fig. 1, corolla laid open; 2, calyx and ovary:•both enlarged.