18 Dr. Jack on the Malayan Species of Melastoma. 



or sixteen inches long. A dense circle of brown-coloured 

 bristles surrounds the joints of the stem within the axils. 

 Panicles terminal, large, red, the subdivisions quaternate ; 

 bracts similarly quaternate and verticillate, ovate. Flowers 

 pale flesh-coloured. Calyx oblong ; limb obsoletely four- 

 toothed. Petals four. Stamina eight, nearly equal; an- 

 thers similar and equal, purple, furnished with two short 

 yellow appendages at the base. Ovary connected with the 

 calyx by eight septa. Style simple. Berries reddish-purple, 

 four-celled, many-seeded. 

 Obs. This is a very remarkable and splendid species, with 

 uncommonly large deep-green leaves, and highly coloured 

 panicles. 



16. Melastoma rubicunda. W. J. 



M. octandra, floribus axillaribus dichotome cymosis rubescenti- 

 pellucidis, calycis margine integro, foliis oblongo-ovatis 

 triplinerviis glaberrimis. 



Native of the forests of Singapore. 



A shrub with long branches and cinereous warted bark. Leaves 

 opposite, short-petioled, oblong, ovate, acuminate, obtuse 

 at the base, triple-nerved, very entire, very smooth, pale 

 green and punctate beneath. Petioles short, thick. Cymes 

 somewhat paniculate, axillary, dichotomous, divaricate ; 

 peduncles and pedicels smooth and red. Calyx semi-inferior, 

 sub-globose, somewhat pellucid, and of a delicate red, fleshy, 

 smooth, attached to the ovary by eight partitions ; margin 

 entire and incumbent. Corolla white, almost diaphanous, 

 four-petalled; pe^a/5 oblong, reflexed. -S^awina eight, erect. 

 Anthers long, curved, beaked, bituberculate at the base, 

 red, before expansion having their points lodged in the cells 



betwixt 



