522 LX. MELASTOMACE2B. (C. B. Clarke.) \_0sbeckia. 



Sot. Reg. 1475 ; Naud. in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 3. xiv. 68 and xiii. t. 7, fig. 2 ; 

 Triana in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxviii. 55 ; Kurz in Journ. As. Soc. 1877, pt. ii. 75, 

 O. Chulesis, Don Prodr. 221 ; DC. Prodr. 143. O. speciosa, Don Prodr. 222. 



SUBTROPICAL HIMALAYA from NEPAL eastwards and in the KHASIA MTS. ; alt. 

 0-4000 ft., abundant. DISTHIB. Ava. 



A shrub ; branches with adpressed hairs. Bracts ovate, glabrous, villous, centre 

 -of the backs villose. Flowers purple-mauve or white. Fruit f by | in., campanulate, 

 truncate, scales permanent. 



2. OT ANTHER A, Blume. 



Shrubs. Leaves subcoriaceous, entire, 3-5-nerved. Panicles small, terminal 

 .and subterminal. Calyx-tube ovoid, carrying pectinate scales or simple hairs or 

 subglabrous ; teeth 5-6, deciduous. Petals 5-6, obovate. Stamens 10-12, alter- 

 nate slightly longer ; anthers opening by one pore at the summit, not beaked ; 

 connective not produced at the base, augmented by two auricles which are 

 close to the anthers in the shorter stamens a little removed below them in the 

 longer. Ovary half-inferior, apex carrying bristles, 5-6-celled ; style filiform, 

 simple ; ovules very numerous, placentas axile, radiating. Fruit a berry. Seeds 

 very many, curved through half a circle, minutely punctate. DISTBIB. Species* 

 2 or 3, extending from Burma to Singapore, Malaya, the Philippines and North 

 Australia. 



Otanthera comes between Osbeckia and Melastoma : the alternate stamens being 

 auricled at the base exactly on the plan of those in Melastoma, but in a much less 



1. O. moluccana, Blume in Flora, 1831, p. 489; leaves sparingly 

 shortly hairy beneath, small panicles of 3-5 flowers terminal and from one or two 

 of the upper axils, fruit ovoid truncate with scattered shortly-stalked stelkte 

 hairs. Blume Mus. Bot. p. 56, t. 20 ; Naud. in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 3. xiii. 353 ; 

 Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. i. pt. i. 515. O. cyanoides, Triana in Trans. Linn. Soc. 

 xxv. 56. Melastoma cyanoides DC. Prodr. iii. 146. M. moluccanum, Blume 

 Bijd. 1078 ; DC. Prodr. iii. 146. (Rheede Hort. Mai. iv. t. 43 quoted by Triana 

 may be 0. rubro-linibata). 



MERGTJI; Griffith (Kew Distrib. No. 2253). DISTRIB. Moluccas; Siejra Leone 

 {Triana). 



Stems scabrous. Leaves 2-2 in., elliptic-lanceolate ; petiole in. Bracts ovate, 

 deciduous. Petals less than in., white. Fruit | in. broad. 



[0. bracteata, Korth. has the calyx-tube covered with long simple approximated 

 .ascending bristles, the broad bracts on the pedicels several close together subpersis- 

 tent : otherwise it is much like 0. moluccana. Kurz in For. Fl. i. 502 and in Journ. 

 As. Soc. 1877, pt. ii. 75, says 0. bracteata, Korth. is not unfrequent in Tenasserim. 

 But Griffith's Mergui plant is clearly 0. cyanoides Triana as appears from examples 

 named by Triana's hand, while Kurz quotes Triana for 0. bracteata.'} 



2. O. nicobarensis, Teysm. $ Binn. Nov. PI. Hort. Bogor. 29 ; flowers 

 terminal and axillary in small panicles, calyx-teeth glaTOOus acuminate ciliate, 

 fruit oblong from a rounded base purple. 



NICOBARS ; collected by the Novara expedition and communicated by them to the 

 Buitenzorg Botanic Garden ; Kurz (Journ. As. Soc. 1876, pt. ii. 131). 



A low shrub ; branches tetragonous, subglabrous, but hairy at the nodes. Leaves 

 | 3 in., ovate or oblong-ovate, acuminate, rounded at the base, 5-nerved, shortly stri- 

 gose on both surfaces ; petiole | in. Petals 5, purple. Stamens subequal, anthers 

 with two auricles added at the base. Not seen. 



