214 Dr. Francis HawuirroN's Commentary 
Calyx planiusculus, laciniis ovatis quinquefidus, fundo tectus disco plano, 
pentagono, cujus anguli emarginati. Petala e calycis incisuris quinque 
minuta. Stamina totidem petalis opposita, e disci crenis enata. Germen 
superum, ovatum. Stigmata duo sessilia, acuta. 
Drupa magnitudine Pruni damasceni oblonga, ad basin calycis rudimento 
umbilicata, ad apicem cum mucrone obtusa, consistentia fere Mali car- 
nosa, acido-dulcis. Testa crassa, bilocularis. Semina solitaria. 
In iisdem locis crescit varietas altera, Pene/ Bayer dicta, cui folia ovalia, 
obtusa; fructus multo major, apice acutiusculus; quam precipue spec- 
tare figura Rumphii videtur. 
Kapaul, p. 87. tab. 42. 
I cannot trace the name Naqueri, or Nakeri, given by the Brahmans of 
Malabar, to any name used in the North of India. The Malabar genus 
Kadali, or Nakeri, of which this is the prototype, was by Herman, Comme- 
line, and other botanists of that time, considered as a kind of Cistus, to which 
it is now held to have very little affinity. Several older botanists had de- 
scribed it by the name Pineka, which might have been preserved. Some 
botanists were little satisfied, even then, with this arrangement, and Plukenet | 
distinguished the Kadalis by calling them Cisti pulpiferi, a circumstance to 
which, perhaps, modern botanists should have paid more attention, and which 
should have prevented them from adding such an enormous mass of plants to 
the Melastoma of the elder Burman. He gave this name to the Cisti pulpiferi, 
because the pulp contained in the fruit stains black the mouths of those by 
whom it is eaten. Melastoma is therefore only applicable with propriety to 
the Cisti pulpiferi, the fruit of which, being a berry, when ripe bursts at the 
sides, on which account the Ceylonese call it Bowithya, and the Bengalese use 
the generic term Phutika, or Phutki, to distinguish it from the kindred plants, 
which have capsules opening by regular apertures at the summit. "To these 
last the terms RAhexia and Osbeckia, according to the number of their stamina, 
should be confined ; but, as these genera stand in Willdenow, no one can say 
where to look for any species. Dr. Jack is therefore perfectly justified in 
restricting the Melastome to such species as have a pericarpium baccatum 
(Linn. Trans. xiv. 1.). 
