518 MELASTOMACE (Sond.) [ Osbeckia. 
Style simple ; stigma undivided. uit capsular or fleshy ; seeds exal- 
buminous. 
Trees, shrubs, suffrutices or rarely herbaceous, annuals or perennials. Leaves 
opposite, one sometimes smaller than the opposing, simple, entire, very generally 
3-ribbed (3—5-7-9-ribbed), with transverse, connecting nerves ; rarely penninerved, 
always without pellucid dots, exstipulate. Flowers in cymes or panicles, rarely soli- 
tary, brightly coloured. These plants are most abundant in the tropical or subtro- 
pical regions of America, a few extending in North America to the parallel of 40° ; 
they are much less frequent in tropical Asia and Africa, and in South Africa are 
only known in the vicinity of Natal. Many are cultivated in European gardens as 
ornamental plants. None are particularly useful. 
I, OSBECKIA, Linn. 
Calyx-tube ovate, usually covered with stellate bristles or pubescence ; 
limb 4—5-cleft, with appendages between the lobes springing from the 
outside. Petals 4-5. Stamens 8-10 ; filaments glabrous ; anthers nearly 
equal and similar to each other, shortly rostrate or very rarely trun- 
cated, opening by a single, terminal pore ; the connectivum with two 
‘short auricles at the base. Ovary covered with bristles at the apex. 
Capsule 4-5-celled. Seeds cochleate ; hilum orbicular, at the base. 
Lam. Ill. t, 283. Endl. Gen. n, 6221. 
Herbs, or usually subshrubs. Leaves quite entire or minutely serrulated, 
3-5-nerved. Flowers terminal. Named in honour of Peter Osbeck, a Swedish 
clergyman and naturalist. 
ANALYSIS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN SPECIES. 
Flowers panicled. Stem and leaves pubescent or villous : 
Lvs. quite entire, oblong-lanceolate, stellate-pubescent 
above ote at as Seg ne vi ... (1) Umlaasiana. 
Lys. serrulate, ovate-acuminate, appressed-villous above (2) eximia. 
Flowers capitate ; stem and lvs. hispid, with rigid, patent, = 
yellow hairs 
1. 0, Umlaasiana (Hochst. ! pl. Krauss.) ; stem erect, quadrangular, 
covered with short, brown, stellate pubescence ; leaves opposite, very 
short-petiolate, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, quite entire, 5-nerved, subcor- 
date at the base, dotted by stellate hairs above, greyish pubescent be- 
neath ; flowers racemose-panicled ; calyx greyish-puberulous, tube 
ovate-globose, lobes ovate-lanceolate ; appendages very minute, subu- 
late ; stamens 10, unequal, the anthers of the longer ones equalling the 
petals. O. canescens, H. Mey. in herb. Drege, not of Graham. 
zotae. ar Port Natal, Drege, Plant, Gueinzius, 137, 393. Jan.—Feb. (Herb. 
"y ” 
Several feet high, from the habit of Lythrum Salicaria, L. Branches erect, 
Honing) 2 _ Petioles 1-2 lines long. Leaves a little scabrous, the lower 2 inches 
long, 6-8 lines broad, the upper smaller. Panicle terminal, oblong, more or less 
compound ; the racemes equalling or somewhat longer than the leaves, Calyx-tube 
Pe Sn lines long ; segments glabrous on the inner side, nearly as long as the tube. 
‘etals rotundate-obtuse, purple, more than twice as long as calyx-lobes. An- 
thers 3 lines long. Capsule ovate, glabrous, 5-celled. 
2. 0. eximia (Sond. in Linnea, Vol, 23, p. 48); stem erect, quad- 
rangular, pubescent ; leaves opposite, petiolate, ovate, acuminate, minutely 
serrulate, subcordate at the base, appressed-villous above, subtomentose 
and paler beneath; panicle terminal, scabrous ; calyx covered with 
