—s 
6 BRITTON: STUDIES OF WEsT INDIAN PLANTS—XII 
2-6 cm. long, 15-30 mm. broad, ovate or sNigcardlg ea ame 
acuminate, rounded at the base, glabrous on both sides to the ey 
but with a microscopic scattered pubescence above, where ae 
midrib is also minutely puberulous; primary veins 3-5 on each 
side of the midrib, distant, inarching and uniting into a sub- 
marginal vein 2-3 mm. from the margin, not prominent on either 
surface. Flowers in small sessile umbellate clusters at the nodes 
of leafless branches. Bracts very minute. Pedicels 2-2%4 mm. 
long, and together with the flowering branches minutely puberu- 
lous. Calyx 5-lobed to the base; lobes about 24 mm. long, ovate, 
obtuse, thinly and very minutely puberulous. Corolla about 
ensely puberulous within; each sinus with a thickening or slight 
gibbosity, oe seems nearly or quite to touch the staminal 
column so as to form 5 small pocket-like entrances to the tube at 
the base of he es Staminal column subsessile, about 0.75 mm. 
long, somewhat conical, truncate at the apex. Corona of 5 
lobes arising from the staminal column at the base of the anthers, 
minute, about 4% mm. long, pressed close against the back of 
the anthers and shorter than the latter, ovate, obtuse; they seem 
to be connected at the base by a minute too th under the anther- 
wings, but in the dried flowers this is difficult to determine. 
Trinidad (Dannouse 6419, TYPE). Collected in 1898. 
The genus Decastelma is very like Metastelma in appearance, 
but differs by having the staminal column subsessile instead of: 
with a long stipe, and by the corona arising from the staminal 
column at the base of the anthers instead of at the mouth of the 
corolla-tube. But the description of the corona of Decastelma 
as given by Schlechter is entirely wrong, unless the flowers on 
different specimens vary very much. For in the type of the 
genus, D. Broadwayi Schltr. (Broadway 474), the flowers that I 
have examined have a corona consisting of 5 lobes only, which 
are shorter than the staminal column and pressed close to it; 
they are broader than long and somewhat truncate at the three- 
toothed top, the middle tooth being minute. 
£ 
Probably 
South America, now placed under 
the genus etastelma, really belong to Decastelma. 
71. A NEW GENUS OF MELASTOMACEAE FROM 
INIDAD 
NECRAMIUM Britton, gen. nov. 
An erect shrub with long branches. Leaves opposite, large, 
membranous, short-petioled, with a ee midrib and three 
