460 lvii. melastomacejk (hooker). [Medinilla, 



12. MEDINILLA, Gaud. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 759. 



Calyx-tube ovoid, campanulate or cylindric; limb entire or 4-5- 

 toothed. Petals 4-5, usually acute, often fleshy. Stamens 8 or 10, 

 equal or nearly so, anthers short or long-, pore single, connective rarely 

 produced, 2-lobed or spurred in front and usually behind also. Ovary 

 more or less adherent, crown glabrous or puberulous ; style short or 

 long-, stigma simple. Berry ovoid or globose, areolate at the top or 

 crowned with the calyx-limb. Seeds minute, irregularly ovoid or 

 angular ; hilum basal, raphe often produced. — Erect or climbing" shrubs 

 .of the tropics of the Old World, glabrous or pubescent, nodes often 

 thickened. Leaves usually coriaceous or fleshy and quite entire. 

 Flowers rarely large, in terminal or axillary cymes or panicles. 



A large and polymorphous Asiatic genua, of which the prevalent characters are given 

 above. 



1. M. (Diplogenia) Mannii, Eook.f. A shrubby perfectly gla- 

 brous epiphyte, 4 ft. high ; branches terete, woody, bark brown, nodes 

 much thickened. Leaves subsessile, 3-5 in. by £-li in., coriaceous, 

 narrowly ovate-lanceolate from a subcordate base, long acuminate, 

 3-nerved. Flowers J in. diameter, in axillary 3-9-flowered, 3-choto- 

 mous cymes J in. long, peduncles and pedicels slender, bracts minute, 

 obtuse. Calyx turbinate, 1-1 0th in., limb membranous, dilated, 

 entire, with 4 fleshy tubercles below the mouth outside, and a low 

 thickened 4-angled cup or ring inside the mouth. Petals 4, white, 

 obtuse. Stamens 8 ; anthers narrow oblong, connective not lengthened, 

 with two suberect spurs in front at the base and one descending spur 

 behiud. Style slender. Berry spherical, \ in. diameter, green, 4-celled. 

 Seeds sub-pyramidal. 

 Upper Guinea. Fernando Po, Mann 1 



13. MEMECYLON, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, i. 773. ' 



Calyx broadly campanulate hemispheric or cupular ; limb dnated, 

 truncate, 4-toothed or lobed. Petals 4, broadly ovate obovate or orbi- 

 cular. Stamens 8, equal, filaments filiform ; anthers thick, consisting 

 of a reniform, fleshy connective inserted by the convex (anterior) face, 

 the lower end projecting behind like a thick blunt spur, the upper 

 bearing 2 small anther-cells with longitudinal slits. Ovary wholly 

 adherent, 1-celled, crown conic, flat or sunk, glabrous, often 8-ribbed, 

 the ribs produced up the calyx-limb; style straight, slender, stigma 

 simple ; ovules 2-12, whorled round a central placenta. Berry ovoid 

 or globose ; testa thin or thick, 1- rarely 2-seeded. Seed large ; coty- 

 ledons consolidated with the radicle or folded round it, crumpled or 

 not. — Trees or shrubs usually perfectly glabrous. Leaves opposite, 

 3-5-nerved, when 3-nerved the two lateral are sometimes marginal or 

 evanescent, quite entire, usually coriaceous. Flowers often violet, small 

 or minute in subcorymbose bracteate panicles or fascicles ; bracteoles 



