6 Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



pulpy, "8 in. in diam. when ripe. Triana in Trans. Linn. Soc. XXVIII, 

 60 ; C. B. Clarke in Hook. fil. Fl. Br. Ind. II, 524 ; Cogn. in DO. Mon. 

 Phan. VII, 355. M. ohovatum var. oblongum, Bl. ex Triana I.e. 60. 



Pbbak ; Scortechini 162 ! King's GoUector 444, 6023, 8696, 10946 ! 

 Wray 2980. Penang ; Wallich, Curtis. Distrib. Sumatra, Tories 2072! 

 Brit, India (Khasia and Assam) ; Tonquin. 



Easily recognised by its condensed cymes and rather small flowers. 



3. Melastoma malabathrtcum, Linn. Sp. PI. 559. A spreading 

 slirub, 3 to 6 feet high ; young branches, petioles and pedicels densely 

 clothed with rather short, acute to acuminate, often serrulate scales. 

 Leaves ovate-lanceolate, ovate-oblong or elliptic, the apex acute or shortly 

 acuminate, petioles short, 3- to 6-nerved (the marginal pair when 

 present slender) ; both surfaces strigose, the hairs sparser on the upper 

 and pale ; on the lower the liairs more numerous (especially on the 

 minor nerves) and darker, the main nerves clothed with broad-based 

 acuminate scales : length 2 to 5-5 in., breadth 75 to 2'5 in. ; petioles 

 •2 to '5 in. long. Corymbs terminal, few-flowered, enveloped in bud by 

 large, deciduous, ovate-cordate bracts ; flowers 2 to 3 in. across, the 

 pedicels '2 to '4 in. long. Calyx; the tube cylindric-campanulate, 

 densely clothed externally with linear acuminate, entire or serrate, pale 

 scales, almost glabrous within ; the teeth shorter than the tube (rarely 

 equal to it), acute or abruptly acuminate, the apex deciduous, scaly only 

 near the midribs. Flowers 2 to 3 in. across. Petals purple. Friiit sub- 

 globular, truncate, pulpy, "25 in. in diam. when dry. DC. Prodr. Ill, 

 145 ; Roxb. Hort. Beng. 33 ; Fl. Ind. II, 405 ; Wall. Cat. 4040 ; Bl. Bijdr. 

 1076; Bot. Reg. t. 672; W. and A. Prodr. 324; Wight 111. t. 95 ; 

 Dalz.'and Gibs., Bomb. Fl. 92 ; Naud. in Ann. So. Nat. Ser. 3, XIII, 285 ; 

 Thwaites Enura. 106 (a and /8) ; Benth. Fl. Aust. Ill, 293 ; C. B. 

 Clarke in Hook. fil. Fl. Br. Ind. II, 523 ; Kurz, For. Fl. I, 503, not of 

 Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. I, pt. I, 507 ; Naud. in Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. 3, XIII, 

 273 ; Cogn. in DC. Mon. Phan. VII, 349. 31. affine, D. Don in Mem. 

 Wern. Soc. IV, 288 ; DC. Prodr. Ill, 145. M. ohvolutum, Jack in Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. XIV, 3 ; Cogn. in DC. Mon. Phan. VII, 348. M. articulatum, 

 M. heterostegiuvi, M. vovse-JiolJandise and M. sechellarum, Naud. in Ann. 

 Sc. Nat. Ser. 3, XIII, 285, 286 and 290. M. velutinuni, Seem. Fl. Vit. 

 90. M. Banksiif Cunn. ex Triana. Trer.ihleya rhinanthera, GrrifE. Not. 

 IV, 677. 



In all the provinces. Distrib. British India and Malayan 

 Archipelago, W. China, Seychelle Islands, N. Caledonia, N. Australia. 



A widely distributed species varying in reality very little in localities widely 



separated. The differences have however been taken as the bases of many bad and 



doubtful species. In hia Flora Austruliensis, Mr. Bentham remarks (and apparently 



with justice) that the whole twenty-four species described by Naudia in Ann. Sc. 



414 



