Melastomacece.] welastomace^:. 113 



rarely more cells, and several ovules in each, or sometimes 1 -celled by the 

 failure of the partitions. Style simple, with a capitate or minute stigma. 

 Fruit enclosed in the calyx or combined with it, succulent and indehiscent, or 

 opening in as many valves as there were cells to the ovaiy. Seeds usually 

 numerous and small, straight or cochleate (i. e. curved something like a uni- 

 valve shell), without albumen. Cotyledons flat or rarely convolute. — Herbs, 

 shrubs, or rarely trees. Leaves opposite, undivided, and (in all but the Meme- 

 cylon tribe) with 3, 5, or more ribs. Flowers usually in terminal panicles or 

 clusters, rarely solitary or axillary. 



A large Order, almost confined to the tropics, and most abundant in S. America, a few 

 species occurring in N. America, in subtropical eastern Asia, southern Africa, or Australia. 



Leaves with 3, 5, or more ribs. Ovary several-celled. 

 Stamens twice as many as petals. 



Petals and calyx-teeth 5 or 6. Fruit succulent. Seeds cochleate 1. Melastoma. 

 Petals and calyx-teeth 4, rarely 5. Fruit capsular. 



Anthers without subulate appendages. Seeds cochleate . . 2. Osbeckia. 

 Anthers with 2 hair-like appendages. Seeds straight ... 3. DissocHjETA. 

 Stamens and petals 4. 



Panicle terminal 4. Oxyspora. 



Flowers in axillary clusters 5. Anplectrum. 



Leaves with only the midrib. Ovary 1-celled 6. Memecylon. 



1. MELASTOMA, Linn. 



Calyx-tube campanulate ; the limb of 5 or rarely 6 deciduous lobes or teeth, 

 and often as many accessory ones. Petals as many, obcordate or obovate. 

 Stamens twice as many. Anthers long, with a single pore ; 5 larger, with the 

 connective produced below into a long curved 2-lobed or 2-pointed appen- 

 dage ; 5 smaller, with the appendage short and 2-lobed or wanting. Ovary 

 5- or rarely 6-celled, crowned with a few stiff hairs or bristles. Fruit more 

 or less succulent, opening irregularly. Seeds cochleate. — Shrubs or under- 

 shrabs. Leaves usually ovate. Flowers terminal, solitaiy or few together, 

 usually large and showy ; the calyx usually covered with bristles or scales. 

 A considerable genus, limited to tropical Asia, Australia, and the Pacific islands. 



Creeping undershrub 1 . M. repens. 



Erect shrub. 



Calyx covered with closely pressed, chafly, scale-like bristles . . 2. M. macrocarpon. 



Calyx covered with long, fine, spreading, and incurved bristles . . 3. if. decewfidum. 



1. M. repens, Lam. ; Naud. in Ann. Sc. Nat. Par. ser. 3, xiii. 274. A 

 diffuse or creeping undershrub, the branches quite glabrous or with a very 

 few bristles. Leaves broadly elliptical or obovate, % to 1 in. long, 3 -nerved, 

 with a few short bristly hairs at the edge, otherwise glabrous. Flowers 1 to 

 3 together at the ends of the branches, much smaller than in the two follow- 

 ing species. Calyx more or less covered with rather short stiff bristles ; the 

 lobes lanceolate, about the length of the tube, varying much in breadth, but 

 never subulate from the base in the specimens I have seen. Petals about £ 

 in. long. Berry purple, rather larger than a Bilberry, and of a pleasant taste. 



Common on all the hills, especially near the summits, Champion and others. Also on the 

 adjacent continent, but not known out of S. China. 



2. M. macrocarpon, Bon; DC. Prod. iii. 145. An erect shrub, the 



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