Hibiscus Rosa Sinensis

Rumphius in his Herbarium Amboinense gives an excellent account of this beautiful native of the East Indies, accompanied by a representation of it with double flowers, in which state it is more particularly cultivated in all the gardens in India, as well as China, he informs us that it grows to the full size of our hazel, and that it varies with white flowers.The inhabitants of India, he observes, are extremely partial to whatever is red, they consider it as a colour which tends to exhilarate, and hence they not only cultivate this plant universally in their gardens, but use its flowers on all occasions of festivity, and even in their sepulchral rites he mentions also an