Dr. Jack on the Malayan Species of Melastoma. IS 



thus recurved upon itself when the anther comes into the 

 , erect position. The two species are nearly related, being 



principally distinguished by the number of the stamina, 

 1 which are only four in the latter. 



11. Melastoma fallax. W.J. 



M. tetrandra, paniculis terminalibus, foliis ovatis quinquenerviis 



subtus tomentosis, antheris erectis infra medium affixis. 

 Native of Sumatra, 



A shrub with long rather compressed tomentose branches. 

 Leaves opposite, petiolate, ovate, cordate at the base, acu- 

 minate, four or five inches long, entire, five-nerved, smooth 

 above, tomentose and ferruginous beneath. Petioles about 

 half an inch in length. Panicles terminal, erect, many-flow- 

 ered ; divisions opposite. Bracts small, acute, at the base 

 of the flowers, opposite. Calyx adnate to the ovary, four- 

 sided, contracted at the mouth ; limb spreading, almost 

 entire, four-cornered. Corolla white, four-petalled ; petals 

 subrotund, inserted on the calyx. Stamina four, filaments 

 erect, expanded into a membrane at the summit, which is 

 adnate to the anther from near their middle to their base ; 

 anthers thick, corrugated, nearly straight, without appen- 

 dices at the base, beaked, opening by a pore at top, at- 

 tached by their anterior faces to the filaments a little below 

 the middle. Before flowering the anthers are doubled down- 

 wards upon the filaments, so as to have the appearance of 

 being pendulous ; by the extrication of their beaks, how- 

 ever, the upper part of the filament is reflexed, and the 

 point of insertion, which before expansion was posterior, 

 becomes anterior. Ovary adnate to the calyx without con- 

 necting septa or cells, the beaks of the anthers not reaching 



« so 



