56 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 
between the calyx tube and ovary. A nearly similar formation is found in Memecylee, 
which has induced both Meisner and Endlicher following Chamiesso, to unite these families, 
but to my mind injudiciously, as, so far as my acquaintance with them extends, I think 
they each form distinct and very natural groups, and that their union tends to spoil both. 
In habit they differ widely, also somewhat in the structure of the flower, by the complete 
union of the calyx and ovary, in the number and position ofthe ovules, which are very 
numerous in Melastomacee, but in Memecylee solitary and pendulous from the apex of the 
cells of the ovary: and lastly, the cotyledons of Memecylez are spirally Convolate, which 
is wanting in the other. Each of these, as solitary characters, would be of little weight, but 
taken together, in my opinion, aremore than sufficient to outweigh the solitary one derived 
from the incurved anthers in estivation, by which alone the two families are sought to be 
united, 
Regarding their properties, nothing of any importance is known—none are unwhole- 
some, while the fruit of several are edible. Those of Melastoma being succulent and dark 
coloured, stain the mouth black in eating, whence the name which, literally interpreted 
means black-mouth. 
SONERILA. 
Calyx tube oblong or somewhat 3-angled, cohering with the ovary with 3-6 longitudinal lines : limb trifid, 
the segments deciduous. Petals 3, ovate-lanceolate, acute. Stamens 3: anthers oblong, pointed, straightish, 
bifid at the base, opening at the apex by two pores ; cennectivum not produced at the base. Ovary truncated 
and glabrous at the apex. Style filiform. Stigma obtuse. Capsule turbinate, crowned with the margin of 
the calyx which is thickened on the inside, 3-celled, 3-valved, the valves opening at the apex only. Seeds 
cuneate-obovate, sharp and somewhat grooved along one side: hilum at the base.—Herbaceous or suffrutes- 
cent usually small plants. Leaves membranous, hairy, opposite, one of them often a little smaller than the 
other, rarely quite abortive. a axillary or terminal, few-flowered. Flowers racemose or fannie. 
rose-coloured.—W. and A. Prod.p. 3 
This genus was founded by oe for the admission of four undescribed plants known to him. He 
took the name from a native one gi by Rheede, to one hehad figured in his Hortus Malabaricus. In 
1828, when DeCandolle published the Order in his Prodromus, the genus was so little known, that he was 
under the necessity of excluding it from the family as one, unknown to him. Fifteen years after, Walpers in 
his “ Repertorium Botanicum,” compiled a list of 21 published species, and several have since been discovered. 
This therefore promises ere long to become a large genus. The three species I have introduced here, are the 
handsomest I have seen. They seem all to be annuals, except, perhaps, the first, which appears to have a 
woody stem ; but as, of a great number of specimens gathered, the stems of all seemed of this year’s growth, I 
suspect the root only if even that is perennial, and that the stem is annually cut down by the frost. 
SoNERILA GRANDIFLORA (R. Br.) erect gla- the banks of a stream by which the valley is siege sar 
brous : tenes elliptic, attenuated at both ends, bristle- The flowers are of a dee pink, congregated 
serrated, 3-5 nerved at the base: peduncle terminal ends of the branches. It is an erect suftrutecose aah 
(alwa ys), about the length of the leaves, flattened at from 12 to 18 inches high, the leaves between 2 and 3 
the apex, and there bearing a slightly curved raceme inches long and about 1 broad, three to five nerved, 
of several unilateral large Dowie petals ovate, point- the outer pair of nerves often very slender, but in 
ed: styleas long as the stamens: sti — simple : luxuriant plants, such as the one represented, dis- 
py “slabrous, 3 —— scarcely the length of the  tinctly - erved. 
pedi 322. 
: » p- SonpRILA speciosa (Zenker) stem erect, sub- 
A beantiful plant, hee as com with the other adioctunvos at the base, somewhat four-sided : leaves 
species of the genus, well nam I have only met petioled 5-nerved, broad! ovate, acute, mucrona ately 
with it in one station on the Neilghe erries, in Long Val- serrated, glabrous ; petioles hairy near the apex : pe 
ley, about mid-way between the Avalanche and ares duncles terminal, dichotomous ; branches afterwards 
ra. There it occurs in considerable abundance on elongating ; flowers secund : calyx and mid rib of the 
