shoeblack-plant

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An East Indian rose-mallow, Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis, often cultivated in hothouses. It is a tree 20 or 30 feet high, with very showy flowers 4 or 5 inches broad, borne on slender peduncles. The flowers contain an astringent juice causing them to turn black or deep-purple when bruised, used by Chinese women for dyeing their hair and eyebrows, and in Java for blacking shoes (whence the name).Also shoe-flower and Chinese rose.