to do with the Melastoma argenfea of Willdenow and Per- 

 soon- 



We are obliged to Sir Abraham Hume for tlie oppor- 

 tunity of making this drawing. The plant flowered in July 

 last, for the first time, in the hothouse at Wormieybury. 

 We have seen it in several of the principal nurseries about 

 town. 



Monsieur Bonpland not having framed any character n)r 

 the genus, we have adopted one from Ventenat, uniting 

 however his Meriana with his Rhexia. 



A shrub of about ten feet high, cloathed with a white 

 silkily tomentose fur. Branches opposite, sharply four- 

 cornered. Leaves opposite, spreading, sessile, subcordate, 

 oval, thick, silkily tomentose on both sides, with veiy dense 

 incumbent hair, 7-9-nerved, quite entire. Panicle brachiate, 

 terminal, composed of branchlets which are in general trifid. 

 Flowers violet-purple, bracteate, about an inch in diameter. 

 Bractes 3 or 2, of the length of the calyx, silky, placed un- 

 der each of the floral fascicles, caducous. Cfffyj: tubular, 

 not unaptly likened by Lamarck to the form of a Clove, 

 silkily villous, fivecleft; segments shorter than the tubular 

 part, smooth on the inside. Petals 5, obovate, a little 

 longer than the calyx, spreading, smooth on the inside, 

 hairy on the outside. Stamens ten, longer than the co- 

 rolla: ^/a?«en?.s of the colour of the petals, bowed inwards, 

 having two small tubercles at the top below the anther: 

 anthers linear, falcate, fixed on at their base. Gennen ob- 

 longly ovate, with an umbilicus of 5 veiy villous teeth, 5- 

 valved, 5-celled, many-seeded. We have depended upon 

 Monsieur Bonpland for the description, which was taken 



fi-om the diied plant, as well as the figure we have cited fronj 

 his work. 



