4 Dr. Jack on the Malayan Species of Melastoma. 
Ons. The flat bristles or scales of the calyx are remarkably long 
in this species; its limb, after the fall of the segments, is 
acutely five-angled, and the scales that rise from these an- 
gles are so long as almost to appear like lesser lacini 
alternating with the true ones. 
2. Metastoma MALABATHRICA. Linn. 
Tas. I. Fig. 1. a—g. 
M. decandra, foliis elliptico-lanceolatis quinquenerviis scabris, 
pilis brevibus appressis, floribus 7—11 opposite corymbo- 
sis, bracteis ovatis deciduis calyce minoribus, calycibus 
squamosis, laciniis deciduis. 
Kadali. Rheed Malab. iv. p. 87. t. 42. 
Fragarius niger. Rumph. Amb. iv. p. 137. t.72. 
Sikadudu. Malay. 
Abundant throughout Sumatra and the Malay islands, and 
chiefly occupying open waste lands or coppices. 
In giving the above character of this well known species, I 
have been obliged to add to the usual specific phrase, in order to 
distinguish it from the preceding, to which it has so much re- 
semblance that they might easily be confounded together. The 
leaves of this are longer and less hairy, and the scales of the 
calyx are much shorter and more appressed than in M. obvoluta. 
The principal distinction however is in the inflorescence, the 
flowers in this being numerous, generally from seven to eleven, 
in a kind of corymbose panicle, and the bracts small; while in 
the preceding the number of the flowers seldom exceeds three, 
and each is invested by two large bracts, which entirely inclose 
the calyx, and do not fall off till the petals are fallen. The two 
following species have also considerable resemblance to the pre- 
sent, 
