MELASTOMACE^. 1 57 



nerves three and a much fainter marginal pair. Flowers 

 in dense tri-chotomous heads : pedicels ^ inch. Calyx- 

 tube densely clothed with brown stalked bristles. 

 Corolla l^ to 2 inches, purple. Petals five. Filaments 

 J^ inch, anthers % inch, acuminate. Fruiting calyx ^A, 

 by 1/5 inch, thickly set with comb-bristles with stalks of 

 1/20 inch, and bristles nearly as long. Ovary five-celled ; 

 openings ciliate with simple hairs of 1/20 to 1/12 inch, 

 t. 115. Wight Ic. t. 997 (O. gardneriana), not Ic t. 996. 



In damp exposed places flowering December to June. 

 Nilgiris : Pykara. Fpon iioo, 2169, 2560. 



Gen. Dist, Nilgiris only. 



Osbcckia reticulata Beddome ; F.B.L ii 520, 1 20 ; Giant 

 Osbeckia ; a small tree, distinguished by the very shaggy 

 branchlets, the large shaggy or silky leaves, with an 

 immense number of cross-veins joining the seven main 

 ones, and the coarse comb-scales which completely 

 cover the calyx-tube. 



Height 4 to 10 feet. Young branches four-angled 

 covered with closely appressed hairs and at the nodes 

 shaggy. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, or ovate, I J^ to 2 J^ by 

 M to I/^ inches, but in the shade and on young shoots 

 reaching five by three inches ; with seven main nerves and 

 numerous almost horizontal cross-veins, 1/16 to }4, inch 

 apart ; densely covered with long silky hairs between 

 the veins on the upper side, and on the veins of the 

 lower : stalk ]4 to ^ inch shaggy. Flowers large in 

 umbellate clusters of three or four at the ends of the 

 branches, their stalks % inch long, joined across the 

 branch by a line of bristles. Calyx-tube % inch, nearly 

 hemispherical, densely clothed by bristly scales : lobes 

 oblong obtuse, 1/5 inch, contorted and overlapping to 

 the left, ciliate and tipped each by a large stellate hair, 

 and with a very densely tufted comb-scale between each 



