242 APPENDIX. 



tribe Lecythideae, consisting largely of gigantic trees, many of them having huge woody 

 seed-vessels, is sparingly represented in Central America by four genera and seven 

 species, remarkable among them is the " Cannon-ball Tree," Couroupita nicaraguensis. 



Melastomacece. 



The greater part of the Melastomacese are shrubs, but they present every variety in 

 aspect and duration, from slender annual herbs to tall trees, and they are generally 

 diffused in the tropics, and a few inhabit temperate latitudes; but they are compara- 

 tively rare in Africa, and very few have been collected in North Australia. Their 

 greatest concentration in the Old World is in the Malay peninsula and archipelago. 

 One species of Osbeckia is undoubtedly wild in Japan ; and two or three members of* 

 the order inhabit Natal. The suborder Astroniese and the very large genus Memecylon 

 are confined to the Old World ; the latter being replaced by Mouriria in Tropical 

 America. The chief centre of the suborder Melastomese is Brazil, where they are 

 exceedingly numerous and varied. Not less than two thirds, probably, are Brazilian ; 

 but as only a portion of them have been elaborated and published, the numbers are not 

 available. Altogether the order comprises 132 genera, and about 1800 species, more 

 rather than less. They abound in the West Indies, and they are not uncommon in 

 Central America and southward to Peru ; yet not a single species has been discovered 

 in Chili, and none is found in North-west America. Indeed, with the exception of 

 three, Heeria subtriplinervis, Monochwtum calcaratum, and a species of Miconia, 

 collected by Seemann, and vaguely labelled " Sierra Madre," we have no record of any 

 in North Mexico. One genus (Bheocia) of several species inhabits the Atlantic States, 

 extending northward to Massachusetts. From the peculiarities of its American distri- 

 bution this order seems to be a lover of humid regions. It ceases in North Mexico 

 even more suddenly than epiphytal orchids, and it does not penetrate the dry region 

 of western South America. Another remarkable fact is that not one of the genera is 

 amphigean ; and the bulk of the American species are comparatively local, although a 

 few are spread over nearly the whole American area of the order, leaving the North- 

 American Mhexia out of consideration. Out of 139 species, ninety-two are endemic 

 within our limits, while only two genera out of twenty-nine are so restricted, namely 

 Centradenia and Heeria : all the rest extending into South America, and twenty-two of 

 them into the West Indies. The following species are widely spread in South America 

 and also occur in the West Indies: — Pterolepis ladanoides, Pleroma longifolium, 

 Miconia decussata, M. ibaguensis, M. impetiolaris, M. lacera, M. laevigata, M. minuti- 

 flora, M. nervosa, M. prasina, and M. stenostachya, Clidemia dependens, C. neglecta, 

 Sagrcea rubra, and Octopleura micrantha. These features in the distribution of the 

 Melastomaceae are repeated in the Orchidese. With regard to altitudinal distribution the 

 Melastomacese begin on the sea-coast, but they are rare in our region above 5000 feet ; 

 still a few ascend much higher. Thus Pleroma longifolium and P. schiedeanum were 



