6 Rrition : Sitdiivs of West Indian pi.. wis XII 



2-6 cm. long, 15 30 mm. broad, ovate or oblong-lanceolate, 



acuminate, rounded at the base, glabrous on both sides to the eye, 

 but with a microscopic scattered pubescence above, where the 

 midrib is also minutely puberulous; primary veins 3- 5 on each 

 side of the midrib, distant, inarching and uniting into a sub- 

 marginal vein 2 3 mm. from the margin, not prominent on either 

 surface. Flowers in small sessile umbellate clusters at the nodes 

 of leafless branches. Bracts very minute. Pedicels 2-2 V2 mm. 

 long, and together with the flowering branches minutely puberu- 

 lous. Calyx 5-lobed to the base; lobes about % mm. long, ovate, 

 obtuse, think- and very minutely puberulous. Corolla about 

 3 mm. in diameter; tube about 0.75 mm. long. glabrous; lobes 

 spreading, about 1 mm. long, ovate, subacute, minutely and 

 densely puberulous within; each sinus with a thickening or slight 

 gibbosity, which seems nearly or quite to touch the staminal 

 column so as to form 5 small pocket-like entrances to the tube at 

 the base of the lobes. Staminal column subsessile, about 0.75 mm. 

 long, somewhat conical, truncate at the apex. Corona of 5 

 lobes arising from the staminal column at the base of the anthers, 

 minute, about : 4 mm. long, pressed close against the back of 

 the anthers and shorter than the latter, ovate, obtuse; they seem 

 to be connected at the base by a minute tooth under the anther- 

 wings, but in the dried flowers this is difficult to determine. 



Trinidad (Dannouse 6419, type). Collected in 1898. 



The genus Decastelma is very like Metastclma in appearance, 

 but differs by having the staminal column subsessile instead of 

 with a long stipe, and by the corona arising from the staminal 

 column at the base of the anthers instead of at the mouth of the 

 corolla-tube. But the description of the corona of Decastelma 

 as given by Schlechter is entirely wrong, unless the flowers on 

 different specimens vary very much. For in the type of the 

 genus, D. Broadwayi Schltr. (Broadway 474), the flowers that I 

 have examined have a corona consisting of 5 lobes only, which 

 are shorter than the staminal column and pressed close to it; 

 they are broader than long and somewhat truncate at the three- 

 toothed top, the middle tooth being minute. 



Probably some species from South America, now placed under 

 the genus Metastelma, really belong to Decastelma. 



71. A NEW GENES OF MELASTOMACEAE FROM 



TRINIDAD 



NECRAMIUM Britton, gen. nov. 

 An erect shrub with long branches. Leaves opposite, large, 

 membranous, short-petioled, with a strong midrib and three 



