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Ovarii loculi uniovulati. Capsula depressa 5-sperma. Cætera fere Hibisci.
KOSTELETZKYA, Presl. Rel. Hænk. 2. p. 130. t.
70. Endl. Gen. 5276.
HIBISCI Sect. PENTASPERMUM, DC.
Prodr. 1. p. 447. (excl. spec.). Torr. & Gray, Fl. N. Am. I. p. 236.
CALYX involucellate from seven to ten subulate or setaceous persistent bracts, five-cleft; the segments valvate in æstivation. PETALS 5, convolute in æstivation, obovate, spreading, hypogynous, their claws united with the base of the stamineal column. STAMENS indefinite, monadelphous; the column slender, its naked apex five-toothed; the short FILAMENTS short, emitted from nearly the whole length of the upper half or more: ANTHERS reniform, one-celled, two-valved. OVARIES 5, combined into a five-celled compound ovary, the cells opposite the sepals: STYLES united into one nearly to the summit, there five-cleft: STIGMAS depressed-capitate. OVULES solitary and ascending from near the base of the inner angle of each cell, nearly anatropous, the micropyle inferior.
FRUIT a depressed-orbicular CAPSULE, more or less five-angled, coriaceous, five-celled, five-seeded, loculicidally five-valved; the valves alternate with the persistent sepals, bearing the dissepiment on their middle, leaving only a short central axis. SEED ascending, somewhat reniform; the crustaceous testa smooth. EMBYRO arcuate in sparing albumen: COTYLEDONS foliaceous, cordate, plaited and chrysaloid-infolded: RADICLE inferior.
HERBS, sometimes suffructicose, with alternate petioled leaves hastate, sagittate, or the lower cordate, sometimes lobed. Stipules setaceous, deciduous. Peduncles axillary, solitary, one-flowered, often racemose or paniculate at the summit of the branches from the reduction of the leaves to bracts, articulated below the apex. Flowers rose-color, purple, or yellowish, not very large.
ETYMOLOGY. Dedicated, I suppose, to a Bohemian botanist, Kosteletzky.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. The genus consists of several chiefly American, tropical or subtropical species, the greater nunber Mexican. One species only, K. Virginica (Hibiscus Virginicus, Linn.) is known in the United States [1], which is common on the coast from Virginia southward, and is sparingly found as far north as Long Island.
[1] A second species, K. depressa, is now known from the United States.
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