Dr. Jack on the Malayan Species of Melastoma. 9 
Oss. This is a very beautiful large flowered species, and is a 
great ornament to the thickets which it frequents. I have 
met with it in various places, as on Sumatra, Pulo Nias, &c. 
7. MELASTOMA BRACTEATA. W.J. 
M. octandra, floribus paniculatis terminalibus, bracteis magnis 
ovatis, foliis cordato-ovatis quinquenerviis, calyce stellulato 
piloso, limbo subintegro. 
Oosa. Malay. 
Native of Pulo Penang. 
The whole shrub with the exception of the upper surface of the 
mature leaves is covered with ferruginous points or dots of 
stellate hairs. Branches round. Leaves opposite, short- 
petioled, ovate, acuminate, cordate at the base, entire, 
smooth above, pilose with stellate hairs beneath, five-nerved. 
DAT: long, terminal, with opposite ramifications. Bracts 
iarge, pale, and membranaceous, ovate, obtuse, attenuated 
_ to the base, as if petiolate. Calyx oblong, greenish, adher- 
ing to the ovarium by eight septa, limb almost entire, with 
four obscure toothlets. Corolla of a pale rose-colour, four- 
: petalled, spreading, petals ovate, obtuse, and as if truncate. 
Stamina eight, filaments red, furnished with two bristles at 
the insertion of the authers. Anthers arcuate, rostrate ; 
four are red, and rather longer than the other four which 
are yellow and more incurved. Style declinate, as long as 
the stamina. Stigma simple. Fruit inclosed in the calyx, 
four-celled, many-seeded. 
Oss. The large bracts which envelop the young flowers di- 
stinguish this species; the flowers are not large, but their 
number compensates for it. 
VOL. XIV. c ** An- 
