Tas. 6575. 
OSBECKIA rostrata. 
Native of Bengal. 
Nat. Ord. Metastomacem.—Tribe OsBEcKIER. 
Genus OsBrckia, Linn.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. i. p. 744. 
Ospeckta (Ceramicalyx) rostrata; glabra pilosa v. hispida, caule erecto subramoso 
stricto tetragono v. basi tetraptero, foliis oppositis v. 3-natim verticillatis 
sessilibus v. breviter petiolatis elliptico-lanceolatis acutis 3-7-costatis glabris v. 
utrinque pilosis, costis strigosis, corymbis terminalibus, ramis sepius elongatis, 
floribus amplis 4-meris breviter pedicellatis, bracteis ovatis, floribus 4-meris, 
calycis tubo elongato-urceolato basi inflato glabro v. stellatim piloso, limbi lobis 
ovatis acutis, corolla ampla, petalis late obovato-orbiculatis purpureis, antheris 
elongatis longe rostratis, calyce fructifero longe tubuloso glabro stellatim-piloso 
v. longissime crinito. 
O. rostrata, Don Prodr. Fl. Nep. p. 221; DC. Prodr. vol. iti. p.143; Triana in 
Trans, Linn. Soc. vol. xxvii. p. 53; Kurz in Journ, As. Soc. Beng. 1877, 
part ii. p. 74; Clarke in Fl. Brit. Ind. vol. ii. p. 517. 
O. ternifolia, Don 7. c. p. 221; DO. 2. c. p. 142; Wail. Cat. no. 4058. 
O. pulchella, Wail. Cat. no. 4059; Naud. in Ann. Se. Nat. ser. 3, vol. xiv. p. 73. 
O. campestris, Wall. Cat. no. 4063. 
O. longicollis, Wall. Cat. no. 4065. 
Melastoma pulchella, Roxb. FU. Ind. vol. ii. p. 403. 
Melastomacea, Griffith Ic. Pl. Asiat. t. 638. 
It is singular that so handsome a plant as this, and so 
common a one over a large tract in India, should never 
before have been figured in any Horticultural work, the 
only published representative being the coarse sketch in 
Griffiths’ posthumous “ Scones,” published in Bengal. It is 
a native of swampy districts along the foot of the Himalaya 
and in Northern Bengal, from Nipal eastward to Assam, 
Rangoon, and Burma. These were supposed to be the 
limits of its range up to the period of the publication of the 
order Melastomacee in the Flora of British India, in 1879, 
since which time, however, a perfectly glabrous form of it 
has been found by Col. Beddome in the Sirumallay hills of 
AvGusT Ist, 1881. 
