Malvaviscus
(from Malva, Mallow, and viscus, glue; referring to the mucilage with which it abounds). SYN. Achania. ORD. Malvaceae. A genus comprising about six species of greenhouse evergreen shrubs or small trees, mostly hispid, natives of tropical America and Mexico. Flowers red, often pedunculate; petals erecto-connivent or spreading upwards; calyx five-fid. Leaves entire, toothed, or angularly lobed. The species thrive best in a compost of fibry peat and loam. Propagated by cuttings of side shoots, placed under a bell glass, in heat.
M. arboreus (tree-like). fl. scarlet, large; leaves of involuce erect. Summer. l. cordate, three to five-lobed, acuminated, roughish. h. 12ft. West Indies, 1714. Shrub. (B. M. 2305, under name of Achania Malvaviscus.) M. mollis (soft). fl. scarlet; leaves of involucel rather spreading. Autumn. l. cordate, somewhat three-lobed, soft, tomentose. h. 12ft. Mexico, 1780. Shrub. (B. M. 2374, under name of Achania mollis.)