12' Dr. Jack on the Malayan Species of Melaatoma. 



Melastomce. It is rarely met with, and has only been ob- 

 tained by me from Musi, a district lying immediately inland 

 of Bencoolen. 



10. Melastoma pallida. W. J. 



M. octandra, floribus paniculatis axillaribus et terminalibus, 

 foliis ovatis quinquenerviis glabriusculis, antheris supra 

 basin affixis. 



Native of the Malay Islands. 



A shrub with round branches powdered as it were with small 

 dots. Leaves opposite, petiolate, ovate, subcordate, acu- 

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

 above, sprinkled with small dots beneath. Petioles short. 

 Flowers oppositely panicled, axillary and terminal, white. 

 Bracts small, acute. Calyx nearly smooth, four-sided, limb 

 obscurely four-lobed. Corolla four-petalled, petals oblong, 

 obtuse. Stamina eight, equal ; filaments with two bristles 

 at the top ; anthers curved, beaked, opening by a pore, at- 

 tached to the filaments a little above the base on the inside, 

 and before expansion turned downwards so as to have their 

 faces closely applied to the filaments. Ovary connected to 

 the calyx by eight septa or partitions, four-celled, polyspo- 

 rous. Style nearly as long as the stamina. Berry four- 



-0 celled, many-seeded. 



Obs. The insertion of the filaments is here somewhat different 

 from what is usual in this genus, being, as it were, articulate 

 a little above the base of the anther, and there forming a 

 hino;e on which the anther moves. This structure becomes 

 still more singular in the following species, where the fila- 

 ment is inserted nearly as high as the middle of the anther, 

 and is adnate to it from thence as far as the base, being 



-wVV'f ': ') thus 



