p» 
NOVEMBER 29, 1911] New MELASTOMATACEAE 1201 
0.5 mm. wider across the truncate apex; petals lividus, coriaceous, 
caducous, truncately short ovate, 2 mm. long, nearly as wide 
across the base, 4; stamens 8; filaments twistingly curved, sub- 
terete, 2 mm. long, narrowed toward the apex, lilacinus, also 
glabrous, terete; style 3 mm. long, pointed toward the small 
stigma; all the stalks in the fruiting state twice as long; fruits 
atroviolaceus, globose, shining, 7.5 mm. long or in diameter, 
bearing a small calyx rim, more or less streaked vertically. 
- Type specimens 7310 in flower and 7361 in fruit, A. D. E. 
Elmer, the former from Sorsogon, southern Luzon, November, 
1905; the latter from Palo, Leyte, January, 1906. 
These two type numbers are exactly the same species, and 
in my opinion ean well be segregated from M. preslianum Tri. 
ASTRONIA Blm. 
Astronia lucbanensis Elm. n. sp. 
A tree-like shrub, 4 m. high; wood moderately soft, dull 
white, easily breaking; bark mostly smooth, grayish white and 
mottled; branches numerous, quite rigid, the obscurely angled 
twigs light brown scurfy. Leaves leathery, opposite, chiefly 
toward the ends of the twigs, glabrous on the strongly conduplicate 
upper side, much lighter green beneath, the young ones glaucous 
at least on the lower more or less scurfy side, entire, elliptically 
oblong or fusiform, gradually tapering toward the recurved acu- 
minate apex, base obtuse or subcuneate, the average blades 1.5 
cm. long by 6 em. wide across the middle, curing blackish brown; 
veins 3 from the base, the midvein stouter, also with submarginal 
lines, the lateral pair arising from near the base, brown scurfy even 
in the old leaves;cross bars also very conspicuous from beneath, 
similarly brown and scurfy, reticulations faint or obsolete; petiole 
1 2 em. long, seurfy at first, ultimately glabrous, shallowly grooved 
tw above, quite stout; stipular bracts lanceolately oblong, varying 
1 to 2 em. long, densely covered with fine olivaceously colored 
scales. Panicle terminal, erect, when in anthesis 1 dm. across; 
peduncle stout, one half as long or less, scurfy, subtended by 
bracts; secondary branches densely covered with olivaceous scales, 
subtended by bract vestiges or ebracteolate; pedicels few mm. 
