Bibliography.— Curran, J. P.,
JOH 14 O'DiA, Secretary, Ancient Order Hibernian: in America. .
a, genus of plants of the mallow family (q.v.), distinguished by a calyx surrounded by an involucre and by a fruit of three or more many-seeded carpels united into a capsule. The species are numerous, mostly natives of warm climates, some trees or shrubs, but most of them large herbaceous plants. Many bear very beautiful flowers, much used in the South Sea Islands in wreaths, etc., for personal adornment. The rose-of-Sharon or Althaea (Hibiscus syriacus), a native of Syria, has long been in cultivation as an orna mental shrub. Several other species have be come favorite hothouse plants. The rose mallow (H. moscheutos) is among the most striking and beautiful of North American wild flowers, conspicuous among the reeds of marshes in late summer with its pink blossoms. The characteristic mucilaginous and fibrous prop erties of the Malvacem are very strongly de veloped in this tribe. The fruit of H. escu lentus, called gumbo, okra, etc. is in general use for food in the East and etc., Indies and the United States. It is an annual plant, with a soft herbaceous stem, three to five feet high, crenate leaves, axillary sulphur-colored flowers, and pyramidal, somewhat godlike capsules. The
fruit is used in an unripe state, and is gen erally much esteemed, but is disliked by some on account of its viscidity. It enters as an important ingredient into the pepper-pot of the West Indies, or is used in soups. It also produces a coarse fibre. The bark of H. tiliaceus, a tree 20 feet high, with a very thick bole, abounds in mucilage. This is one of the most abundant trees of the South Sea Islands; and the wood, being light, tough and durable, is used for many purposes. From its fibre the Tahitians manufacture matting. Many other species yield fibres, some coarse, some fine and beautiful, which are used in dif ferent countries; but the most important in this respect is H. cannabinus, the Deccan hemp of western India (see HEMP). H. sabdariffa is very generally cultivated in warm countries, on account of its calyx, which, as the fruit ripens. becomes fleshy, and acquires a very pleasant acidity. It is much used for making tarts and jelly, and a decoction of it, sweetened and fer mented, affords a refreshing beverage, well known in the West Indies as sorrel cool drink, the plant being called red sorrel; and in Madras it is used for similar purposes, and is named roselle or rouselle. Musk-seed (H. abel moschus) is cultivated for its seeds, which have a fragrance between that of musk and that of amber. They are much used by per fumers, and are called graines d'ambrette. In Egypt and Arabia they are mixed with coffee, and stimulant and stomachic qualities are as cribed to them. The petals of H. rosa-sinensis possess astringent properties, and they are also used by the Chinese to stain their eyebrows and their shoes black.