266 MYRSINACE^. 



Nilgiris : Lovedale and Ootacamund. Pulneys : Shembaga- 

 nur. Bourne 430. 



A common weed of cultivation in the cooler temperate regions. 

 Known also in England as Poorman's Weatherglass, Fr. Meuronne des 

 champs, Ger. Roter Gauchheil. 



MYRSINACE/E. 



Shrubs and small trees with alternate simple gland- 

 dotted leaves, and regular flowers : corolla monopetalous 

 with short teeth and usually five lobes : stamens as many 

 opposite the lobes ; anthers opening by slits (not terminal 

 pores) : ovary one-celled with free central placenta : fruit 

 small, sub-baccate : seeds one or more, globose, with 

 transverse embryo, and endosperm pitted or indented by 

 the folding of the inner seed coat. 



Species 500, all tropical or sub-tropical. 



Leaves toothed : flowers in racemes m/esa. 



Leaves entire with brown glands : flowers fascicled . myrsine. 

 Leaves entire : flowers pink in racemes ardisia. 



M/ESA. F.B.I. 88 L 



Shrubs and small trees with alternate, entire or 

 toothed, leaves and small flowers in terminal or axillary 

 simple or branched racemes, with a small bract subtend- 

 ing the pedicel, and two bracteoles at the base of the 

 calyx. Sepals, corolla lobes, and stamens five. Fruit 

 enclosed, not quite to the top, in the calyx-tube. 



Species 35 ; or according to some authors, by splitting of 

 species, over 100. 



Maesa pcrrottctiana DC. ; F.B.L under M. indica Wall, 

 iii 509, I 5.* Shrub, with much-lenticelled twiggy 

 branches. Leaf-stalks M inch : blades variable, usually 

 broadly ovate, narrowed at the base, acute or shortly 

 acuminate with sharp triangular serrations, glabrous: 



