Dissotis.] LVII. MELASTOMACEiE (HOOKER). 447 



7. DISSOTIS, Benth. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, i. 746. 



Calyx-tube ovoid or campanulate, glabrous or clothed with scales, 

 bristles, or stellately or pectinately spreading 1 , sessile, or stipitate 

 bristles ; lobes 4-5, often bristly and alternating- with bristly scales, 

 deciduous or persistent. Petals 4-5, obovate. Stamens 8 or 10, very 

 unequal ; anthers linear-subulate, of the long stamens with an elongate 

 arcuate connective appendaged or spurred at the base in front ; 

 anthers of small stamens with a short connective. Ovary 4-5-celled, 

 adhering by 5 septa to the calyx-tube, top bristly ; style curved ; stigma 

 simple. Capsule included in the coriaceous calyx-tube, top convex, 

 bristly, 4-5-celled. Seeds minute, cochleate. — Herbs or shrubs, usu- 

 ally pubescent. Leaves ovate or oblong, 3-5-nerved. Flowers soli- 

 tary capitate or panicled, usually large, rose-coloured, purple or 

 violet. 



A tropical and subtropical African genus. 



§ 1. (Heterotis).— Flowers 5-merous, enclosed in large sheathing persistent bracts. 

 Calyx-lobes persistent. 



Flowers solitary or panicled ; petiole short 1 . D. segregata. 



Flowers 1-2, petiole long 2. D. petiolata. 



Flowers capitate. 



Calyx bristly round the middle of the tube 3. D. cornifolia. 



Calyx covered with stellate or palmate bristles 4. D. Afzelii. 



Calyx .naked or bristly at the base only. Leaves with appressed 

 hairs. 



Stem erect, white. Leaves sessile, narrow 5. D. thecefolia. 



Stem green. Leaves short-petioled, ovate 6. D. capitata. 



Stem prostrate. Leaves short-petioled, ovate 7. D. radicans. 



Leaves covered with spreading hairs 8. D. hirsuta. 



§ 2. Flowers crowded, 4rmerous. Bracts small, persistent. Calyx-lobes persistent 

 or subpersistent. 



Villous, with soft hairs 9. D. villosa. 



Scabrid 10. D. phaiotricha. 



§ 3. Flowers sub-solitary, 5-merous. Bracts 2, small, rarely large, deciduous. 

 Calyx-lobes persistent. 



Calyx with scattered simple hairs 11. D. losvis. 



Calyx-tube glabrous, accessary lobes very long 12. D. antennina. 



Calyx with pedicelled stellately arranged bristles. 



Leaves broadly ovate, 4~f in 13. D. plumosa. 



Leaves elliptic-ovate, |— 14 in 14. D. prostrata. 



Calyx-tube hoary with stellate or furfuraceous pubescence . . . 15. D. incana. 



§ 4. Flowers solitary racemose or panicled, 5-merous. Bracts deciduous. Calyx- 

 lobes deciduous. 



Stem and leaves hirsute. Leaves subsessile, lanceolate . . . . 16. D. Irvingiana. 

 Stem and leaves scabrid. Leaves elliptic, shortly petioled . . .17. D. Melleri. 

 Stem and leaves strigillose. Calyx-lobes obliquely dilated on one 



side 18. D. Barteri. 



Leaves villously pubescent, ovate, petioled. 



Flowers in stout panicles -. 19. ,D. eximia. 



Stem hispid. Leaves short-petioled. Flowers racemose . . . 20. D. grandifiora. 



