Ardisia. | LXXIX. MYRSINE® (BAKER). 495 
3. ARDISIA, Sw.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ii. p. 645. 
Flowers hermaphrodite or polygamous. Calyx entirely free from 
the ovary, minute, campanulate; teeth deltoid, imbricate, usually 5, 
Corolla rotate, with a very short tube and usually 5 contorted seg- 
ments. Stamens inserted at the throat of the corolla-tube, included ; 
filaments very short; anthers comparatively large, lanceolate, cuspi- 
date; ovules few or many immersed in the globose placenta. Fruit 
globose, with a thin fleshy mesocarp and crustaceous endocarp, 
l-seeded. Seed globose, with copious horny uniform or ruminate 
albumen.—Trees or shrubs, glabrous or pubescent; leaves entire or 
toothed, usually petioled ; flowers in the Tropical African species in 
congested lateral cymes; fruit often bright blue. 
A genus of about 200 species, concentrated in the Tropical zone of Asia and 
America, none Cape. 
Cymes placed in the axils of the petioled inciso-crenate leaves 1. A. cymosa. 
ymes placed on the stout branchlets below the sessile entire 
leaves , 2. A. bracteata, 
l. A. cymosa, Baker. An erect shrub, 2-3 ft. high, with 
branchlets thinly coated with ferruginous tomentum. Leaves petioled, 
hot crowded towards the end of the branchlets ; petiole }+ in., deeply 
channelled down the face; blade oblanceolate-oblong, 4-5 in. long, 
3-2 in. broad at the middle, acute, inciso-crenate except at the cuneate 
ase, membranous, green and glabrous on both sides, with copious 
mnute black dots and fine erecto-patent main veins uniting in arches 
within the margin. Flowers 4-8 together in congested cymes in the 
axils of the leaves, with only minute deltoid bracts, on cernuous pedi- 
Cels ty in. long clothed with ferruginous tomeutum. Flower-calyx 
campanulate, yy in. diameter, with 5 deltoid teeth and abundant black 
glandular dots, Corolla 2 in. long, with a very short tube and 5 oblan- 
Ceolate-oblong dotted petals. Stamens inserted at the throat of the 
» Mcluded ; filament very short; anther lanceolate, acute, 7/5 in. 
‘"8: Fruit glabrous, globose, } in. diameter; style very slender, 
Subulate, Tz in. long ; stigma minute. 
Upper Guinea. Island of St. Thomas, at 2000 ft., Mann! 
. 2 A. bracteata, Baker. An erect shrub 1-2 ft. high, glabrous 
'” all its parts, with the sessile leaves crowded towards the top of the 
stout branchlets. Leaves oblanceolate-oblong, 4-5 in. long, 1¢-14 in. 
road at the middle, acute, entire, narrowed from the middle down- 
Wards but rounded at the very base, moderately firm in texture, green 
and glabrous on both sides, with copious minute black dots an . 
“cending main veins. Flowers in congested cymes, which are ok. 
on the stout branchlets below the leafy part, mixed with cop Fk oa 
tuse oblong leaves 1-1 in. long ; pedicels very short, raver oo, 
“yx campanuiate, zy in. diameter, copiously gland-dotted, ae nt 
jound-deltoid imbricated tecth. Corolla 4 in. long, with a 5 pd ibis 
and 5 oblong dotted petals. Anthers ‘anceolate, acute, yz 1. long, 
