Ardisia.'] lxxix. myrsine^ (baker). 495 



3. ARDISIA, Sw. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. p. G45. 



Flowers hermaphrodite or polygamous. Calyx entirely free from 

 the ovary, minute, campanulate ; teeth deltoid, imbricate, usually 5. 

 Corolla rotate, with a very short tube and usually 5 contorted seg- 

 ments. Stamens inserted at the throat of the corolla-tube, included ; 

 filaments very short; anthers comparatively large, lanceolate, cuspi- 

 date ; ovules few or many immersed in the globose placenta. Fruit 

 globose, with a thin fleshy mesocarp and crustaceous endocarp, 

 1-seeded. Seed globose, with copious horny uniform or ruminate 

 albumen. — Trees or shrubs, glabrous or pubescent ; leaves entire or 

 toothed, usually petioled ; flowers in the Tropical African species in 

 congested lateral cymes ; fruit often bright blue. 



A genus of about 200 species, concentrated in the Tropical zone of Asia and 

 America, none Cape. 



Cymes placed in the axils of the petioled inciso-crenate leaves 1. A. cymosa. 

 Cymes placed on the stout branchlets below the sessile entire 



leaves ■ 1. A. bracteata. 



1. A. cyxnosa, Baker. An erect shrub, 2-3 ft. high, with 

 branchlets thinly coated with ferruginous tomentum. Leaves petioled, 

 not crowded towards the end of the branchlets ; petiole \-^ in., deeply 

 channelled down the face ; blade oblanceolate-oblong, 4-5 in. long, 

 l-|-2 in. broad at the middle, acute, inciso-crenate except at the cuneate 

 base, membranous, green and glabrous on both sides, with copious 

 minute black dots and fine erecto-patent main veins uniting in arches 

 within the margin. Flowers 4-8 together in congested cymes in the 

 axils of the leaves, with only minute deltoid bracts, on cernuous pedi- 

 cels tV~8 ^^* ^^^S clothed with ferruginous tomentum. Flower-calyx 

 campanulate, -}^ in. diameter, with 5 deltoid teeth and abundant black 

 glandular dots. Corolla ^ in. long, with a very short tube and 5 oblan- 

 ceolate-oblong dotted petals. Stamens inserted at the throat of the 

 tube, included ; filament very short ; anther lanceolate, acute, yV in. 

 long. Fruit glabrous, globose, \ in. diameter ; style very slender, 

 subulate, -^^ in. long ; stigma minute. 



ITpper Guinea. Island of St. Thomas, at 2000 ft., Mann ! 



2. A. bracteata, Baher. An erect shrub 1-2 ft. high, glabrous 

 in all its parts, \vith the sessile leaves crowded towards the top of the 

 stout branchlets. Leaves oblanceolate-oblong, 4-5 in. long, l^^-H in. 

 broad at the middle, acute, entire, narrowed from the middle down- 

 wards but rounded at the very base, moderately firm in texture, green 

 and glabrous on both sides, with copious minute black dots and fine 

 ascending main veins. Flowers in congested cymes, which are sessile 

 on the stout branchlets below the leafy part, mixed with copious ob- 

 tu:se oblong leaves ^\ in. long ; pedicels very short, deflexed. Flower- 

 calyx campanulate, yV ^^- diameter, copiously gland-dotted, with 5 

 round-deltoid imbricated teeth. Corolla ^ in. long, with a very short 

 tube and 5 oblong dotted petals. Anthers lanceolate, acute, -^^ in. long, 



