214 Dr. Francis Hamilton's Commentary 



Calyx planiiisculus, laciniis ovatis quinquefidus, fundo tectus disco piano, 

 pentagono, cujus anguli eniarginati. Petala e calycis incisuris quinque 

 minuta. Stamina totidem petalis opposita, e disci crenis enata. Gennen 

 superum, ovatum. Stigmata duo sessilia, acuta. 



Drupa magnitudine Pruni damasceni oblonga, ad basin calycis rudimento 

 umbilicata, ad apicem cum mucrone obtusa, consistentia fere Mali car- 

 nosa, acido-dulcis. Testa crassa, bilocularis. Semina solitaiia. 



In iisdem locis crescit varietas altera, Penel Bayer dicta, cui folia ovalia, 

 obtusa; fructus multo major, apice acutiusculus ; quam prsecipue spec- 

 tare figura Rumphii videtur. 



Kadali, p. 87. tab. 42. 



I cannot trace the name Naqueri, or Naheri, given by the Brahmans of 

 Malabar, to any name used in the North of India. The Malabar genus 

 Kadali, or Naheri, of which this is the prototype, was by Herman, Comme- 

 line, and other botanists of that time, considered as a kind of Cistus, to which 

 it is now held to have very little affinity. Several older botanists had de- 

 scribed it by the name Pineha, which might have been preserved. Some 

 botanists were little satisfied, even then, with this arrangement, and Plukenet 

 distinguished the Kadalis by calling them Cisti pulpiferi, a circumstance to 

 which, perhaps, modern botanists should have paid more attention, and which 

 should have prevented them from adding such an enormous mass of plants to 

 the Melastoma of the elder Burman. He gave this name to the Cisti pulpiferi, 

 because the pulp contained in the fruit stains black the mouths of those by 

 whom it is eaten. Melastoma is therefore only applicable with propriety to 

 the Cisti pulpiferi, the fruit of whicii, being a berry, when ripe bursts at the 

 sides, on which account the Ceylonese call it Bowithya, and the Bengalese use 

 the generic term Phiitika, or Phutki, to distinguish it from the kindred plants, 

 which have capsules opening by regular apertures at the summit. To these 

 last the terms R/ie.ria and Osbeckia, according to the number of their stamina, 

 should be confined ; but, as these genera stand in Wilklenow, no one can say 

 where to look for any species. Dr. Jack is therefore perfectly justified in 

 restricting the Melastoma' to such species as have a pericarpium baccatum 

 {Linn. Trans, xiv. 1.). 



