454 lvii. melastomace^: (hooker). [Dissotis. 



opaque, scabrid with short bristles, paler beneath ; nerves 3-5, very- 

 stout below ; petioles short, stout, scabrid. Flowers about \ in. in 

 diameter, purple, crowded in short peduncled cymes in the upper axils, 

 pedicels short, stout; bracts 0, or very early deciduous. Calyx -tube 

 J in., very coriaceous, cylindric-campanulate, covered with scattered 

 flattened bristles which pass into short setose appressed simple or 2 -fid 

 scales below the mouth ; lobes 5, broadly oblong", obtuse, apiculate, 

 ciliate, deciduous. Petals (young) orbicular, glabrous. Anthers of 

 large stamens Jin., .as long- as their connectives, appendage shortly 

 produced in front, 2-lobed; connective of smaller anthers short, 2- 

 auricled at the base. Ovary 10-ribbed, bristly at the very tip only ; 

 style stout, curved, stigma truncate. 



Mozamb. Distr. Mount Chiradzura, alt. 2000 ft., on the Manganya range, Meller ! 

 (Sept. 1861.) 



18. D. Barteri, Hook.f. Shrubby, sparsely strigillose with short 

 appressed bristles ; branches terete ; branchlets obtusely 4-gonous. 

 Leaves shortly petioled, 3-4 in. by lj-lf in., oblong or elliptic or 

 lanceolate-oblong, acute, base obtuse or rounded or subcordate, ciliate- 

 serrulate, 3-nerved, equally minutely strigillose on both surfaces ; 

 petiole Jin. Flowers 2J in. in diameter, in terminal few-flowered 

 paniculate cymes ; peduncles short ; pedicels strigillose. Calyx-tube 

 \ in., ovoid, densely strigillose or hispid, and covered with stellately 

 arranged bristles surrounded at the top by 5 erect appendages with stel- 

 lately bristly tips; lobes 5, equalling the tube, strigillose at the back, very 

 broad, large, deciduous, obcordate, with one lobe obliquely expanded 

 into a membranous ascending wing, tip thickened and bristly. Petals 

 very large, obovate, ciliate. Anthers \ in., linear-subulate, incurved, 

 shorter than the very slender connective which is 2-spurred at the base in 

 front; connectives of smaller stamens half as long as the anthers, 2- 

 tubercled in front. Ovary-tip conic, deeply 5-lobed, hispid, crowned 

 with 5 oblong- hispid appendages ; style slender, stigma truncate. 



Upper Guinea. Prince's Island, Barteri 



19. D. eximia, Hook. f. Shrubby, densely clothed with villous 

 pubescence. Stem stout, woody, much branched, terete, obtusely 4- 

 angled and branches furfuraceously pubescent with substellate scales 

 and hairs. Leaves 3—5 in. by 1-1 J in., coriaceous, ovate or oblong- 

 lanceolate, acute, often recurved, quite entire or crenulate, 5-nerved, 

 base obtuse or cordate, equally densely appressedly villous on both sur- 

 faces, sometimes obscurely silky; petiole stout, J-l in. Flowers in 

 terminal stout branched panicles, 2-2J in. in diameter, shortly pedi- 

 celled; bracts ovate or orbicular, acute or obtuse, shorter than the 

 calyx, strigillose on the back, very deciduous. Calyx-tube J in., 

 broadly ovoid, hispidulous and densely clothed with long fascicled sub- 

 appressed bristles ; tip with elongated bristly appendages round the 

 mouth ; lobes as long as the tube, very variable, usually lanceolate, 

 densely pubescent, bristly or not, deciduous. Petals broadly obovate, 



