402 DECANDRiA MONOGYNIA. Melastoma. 



This species is perennial, it delights in moist places 

 overgrown with small jungle. Flowering time the wet 

 season. 



Stem erect, when old woody. Young parts slightly 

 four-sided, and downy. Leaves alternate, sessile, linear- 

 lanceolate, entire, downy, from two to four inches long. 

 Stipules minute, semilanceolate. Peduncles axillary, 

 solitary, very short, one-flowered. Calyx four-cleft. Pe- 

 tals four, orbicular, clawed. Stamens eight, erect. Cap- 

 sule four- celled. 



MELASTOMA. Schreb. gen. n. 742. 



Calyx campanulate, five-toothed. Corol five-petalled, 

 inserted into the mouth of the calyx. Germ five-celled ; 

 cells many seeded ; attachment to a cuneiform recepta- 

 cle projecting from the axis. Capsules five-celled, in- 

 volved in the calyx. Seeds numerous. 



Note.. All the species examined by me, have the seeds 

 regularly attached to a cuneiform semilunar, receptacle 

 in each cell, vertically united to the axis, as in Osheckia 

 hirta Gart. sent. 2. L 126. I make this remark because 

 Gaertner describes them to be nidulent ; his seed vessels 

 may have been old, and the receptacles decayed. 



1. M.. ferruginea. R. 



Shrubby, all the tender parts, except the upper sur- 

 face of the short-petioled, ovate-cordate, acuminate, en- 

 tire leaves, covered with ferruginous, stellate pubescence. 

 Panicles terminal. Flowers octandrous. Calyx with 

 ample, obtusely four-lobed borders. 



A native of Pulo Pinang. 



2. M . crinita. R. 



Shrubby, all the tender parts very hairy. Leaves pe- 

 tioled, lanceolate, from three to five nerved, entire. Pa- 



