NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 55 
known species. Asia and her Islands, hold the next place, the number of species already 
derived from these regions amounting to about 200, a few only have as yet been obtained 
from the African continent, and still fewer from New Holland. 
In Ceylon they are numerous in proportion to the extent of country where they princi- 
pally occur, upwards of 20 species having already been obtained from the southern and more 
elevated districts of that country : that being the tract best examined. And there they are so 
numerous, that I have no doubt the number will, ere long, under the keen scrutiny of Mr. 
Gardner, be doubled. In India, so far as yet known, the number of species are, I suspect, fewer 
than in Ceylon; but the western ghauts where only they can be expected in any considerable 
number, have not yet been sufficiently examined during the most favourable seasons for find- 
ing them. In the plains of the Carnatic and Mysore, where the climate is dry, they are al- 
most unknown, but about Courtallum where during the Southwest Monsoon, the climate is 
cool and moist, they are more frequent. On the more elevated Alpine regions such as the 
Pulney Mountains and the Neilgherries, they abound, though the number of species is small. 
The most productive tracts however of these hills are still imperfectly explored. On the 
western slopes where the climate is humid and apparently congenial to their constitution, I 
apprehend they will be found much more numerous than we are yet aware of. This I think 
from having lately found seven or eight species on the Sisparah Ghaut, about the end of Fe- 
bruary, the season being at that time so far advanced, that most of them were nearly past 
flower. Most of these are undescribed in our Prodromus. 
When writing that work only 16 Peninsular species were known, these accessions raise the 
number to about 22, and among those obtained from other quarters now in my collection but 
not determined, it is probable three or four more may be added, making only 25 or 26, for 
the whole of the Indian Peninsula; a small proportion of the estimated number of Asiatic 
species. I have extended these remarks on the geographical distribution of this family, in 
the hope of their leading to future enquiries on the subject. 
The family, as a whole isa very natural one, and marked throughout by so strong a 
family likeness, that two or three being known, the whole family may generally be recogniz- 
ed at first sight. This family likeness had led DeCandolle to remark of it, that “ the family 
of Melastomacee, though composed entirely of exotic plants, and established at a period 
when but few species were known, is so well characterized that no one has ever thought of 
putting any part of it in any other group, or even introducing into it genera that do not 
rightly belong to it” (see Lindley’s nat. system.) But it is not so easy to distinguish among 
themselves the genera and species of which it is composed, the closeness of their affinity of- 
ten rendering this a very difficult process. The genera Melastoma and Osbeckia afford a 
striking example of this fact, the distinguishing character being derived from the anthers when 
in flower, and from the pulpy baccate fruit of the former when in fruit. The fruit of 
Osbeckia is a dry capsule. From both these and from the rest of the family, Sonerillais at 
once distinguished by its ternary flowers, many of its species have moreover pinnately 
veined, not ribbed leaves, the latter being the predominant form in the order. This last 
indeed is one of its distinguishing features, and added to the long beaked anthers opening 
at the point by pores, leaves scarcely a doubt that any plant in which they meet, belongs 
to this family. They are further distinguished by the position of the anthers in ‘estivation, 
the apex of the filament being bent or folded down, and the anther lodged in a cavity 
