DissochcetaJ] LX. MELASTOMA^E/E. (C. B. Clarke.) 543 



14. 



Shrubs, usirallVtwiners. Leaves opposite, petioled or nearly sessile, elliptic 

 or oblong-lanceolate, rounded at the base, 3-nerved from the base besides two 

 subruarginal nerves, entire. Flowers large or small, in terminal sometimes 

 leafy panicles, purple or white, bracts large or small. Calyx-tube campanulate- 

 cylindric, densely stellate-tomentose pubescent or glabrous ; limb obscurely 

 4-lobed, more rarely distinctly 4-toothed, persistent. Petals 4. Stamens 8, un- 

 equal, 4 shorter sometimes wanting, connective of the 4 longer with 2 long 

 bristles in front at the base (in all the Indian species). Ovary adnate to the 

 calyx, 4-celled, apex glabrous or densely hairy; style filiform; ovules very 

 many, placentas axile. Berry ovoid or elliptic, crowned with the calyx-limb. 

 Seeds ellipsoid, flattened on the side of the raphe. DISTKIB. Species 16, ex- 

 tending from Pinang and Malacca throughout Malaya to the Philippines. 



* Anthers very long, attenuate upwards. 



1. X>. annulata, Hook. f. ms. ; Triana in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxviii. 83 ; 

 branches panicle and leaves beneath with much rufous stellate tomentum, panicle 

 narrow leafy with large bracts to the young flowers, calyx-tube of the buds more 

 than | in. densely woolly-rufous and stellate-hairy, teeth distinctly tria'ngular. 

 Melastoma bracteatuni, Wall. Cat. 4044, partly. 



PINANG; Wallich, Griffith (Kew Distrib. No. 2268). Mount Ophir, MALACCA, 

 Maingay No. 788. DISTRIB. Borneo. 



Leaves 3-4i in., glabrous above or minutely pubescent on the nerves ; petiole in. 

 Panicle consisting of axillary cymes (exactly resembling that of Marumia reticulata) ; 

 bracts f in., oblong, caducous ; pedicels less than J in. Fruit (not ripe) ellipsoid, 

 calyx-mouth enlarged, teeth somewhat rounded. The stem of this plant has rings 

 -at the nodes as in Marumia : its natural affinity seems altogether with Marumia 

 reticulata and M. nemorosa : it recedes from M. reticulata only by the absence of the 

 'long bristles on the calyx-tube so common in Marumia ; from M. nemorosa, it recedes 

 by the quasi-paniculate inflorescence and the absence of any twisted hairs at the base 

 of the connective other than the two long bristles in front. 



2. D. punctulata, Ilook.f. ms.; Triana in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxviii. 83; 

 branches and panicle densely closely dark-red furfuraceous, panicle narrow not 

 .leafy, bracts small linear deciduous, calyx-tube -* J in. densely dark-red furfu- 

 raceous, teeth short triangular in the expanded flower. 



MALACCA; Griffith (Kew Distrib. No. 2291); Maingay No. 789. SINGAPORE and 



ANG ; Walker. 



Leaves 2^-3^ in., glabrous above, with scattered dark-red stellate hairs beneath ; 

 petiole |-f in. 'Panicle terminal, pedicels hardly more than in. Fruit (not ripe) 

 campanulate (seems about to become ovoid), calyx-teeth not then prominent, nor the 

 mouth enlarged. 



3. I>. bracteata, Blume. in Flora, 1831, 495 ; branches upwards and 

 panicle with small stellate pubescence, panicle somewhat spreading not leafy, 

 bracts large oblong longer than the expanding buds, calyx-tube Q>f the buds 

 i-^ in. with more or less stellate pubescence limb (in the bud) nearly entire or 

 very obscurely 4-toothed. Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. i. pt. i. 529 ; Triana in Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. xxviii. 84. D. braeteosa, Naud. in Ann. So. Nat. ser. 3. xv. 76 ; 

 Miq. FL Ind. Bat. i. pt. i. 527. Melastoma bracteatuni, Jack in Trans. Linn. 

 -Soc. xiv. 9 ; Wall Cat. 4044, partly. 



