Osbeckia.'] MELASTOMACEiE. ]15 



Calyx-tube 3 to 4 lines long ; lobes 4, acute and ciliate, but without any ter- 

 minal tuft of hairs, with 4 accessory ciliate scales inserted between and a little 

 below them on the outside. Fruiting' calyx somewhat contracted near the 

 top, truncate after the lobes have fallen. — 0. a/ngustifolia, Don ; Wall. PL As. 

 Ear. iii. t. 251. 0. linearis, Blume, in Flora, 1831, 473. 0. decora, Wall. 

 Catal. n. 4070. 0. glabrata, Wall. Catal. n. 4071. 



In ravines in tte island, Champion and others. Common in northern and eastern India, 

 in the Archipelago, the Philippines, and northward to south China and Formosa. This spe- 

 cies is well described by Linnaeus, although it has been subsequently much confused, owing 

 to his false reference to Plukenet. This has led to the figuring other Indian species, in Bot. 

 Reg. t. 542 and Bot. Mag. t. 4026, under the erroneous name of 0. chinensis. 



3. DISSOCHJETA, Blume. 



Calyx-tube ovoid or oblong; the limb 4-lobed, without accessory teeth. 

 Petals 4. Stamens 4 or 8, of which 4 much smaller. Anthers of the larger 

 ones usually elongated, with a single pore at the top ; the connective often 

 produced below at the back into a spur, and usually bearing at tlie base in 

 front 2 hair-like appendages. Ovary usually adnate to the calyx at the angles 

 only, 4-celled, without bristles at the top. Fruit usually capsular. Seeds 

 nearly straight, with a lateral hilum. — Shrubs, usually glabrous or with a 

 very slight tomentum. Flowers in terminal panicles, usually smaller than in 

 the two last genera, although exceptionally large in the following species. 



A considerable genus, limited to tropical Asia, and most numerous in the Archipelago. 



1. D. Barthei, Hance, n. sp. A low shrub, with spreading branches, 

 glabrous, or the young shoots slightly mealy-glandular. Leaves oval-elliptical, 

 acuminate, those of each pair unequal, the longer ones 2 to 3 in. long, 1 to 

 \\ in. broad, on a petiole of half an inch, with 3 ribs besides the marginal 

 nerves. Flowers usually 3 together, at the ends of the branches, white, tinged 

 with pink outside, about 2 in. diameter. Calyx-tube sharply 4-angled, the 

 lobes about 2 lines long. Petals broad, like those of a Melastoma. Anthers 

 of the 4 larger stamens about 5 lines long, with an oblong dorsal appendage 

 or spur, and the 2 hair-like appendages characteristic of the genus, the 4 others 

 about one-third their size, without the dorsal appendage, but with the two 

 hair-like ones. Ovary crowned by an irregularly lobed ring, with short glan- 

 dular bristles. Capside, when ripe, almost free within the calyx, opening in 

 4 valves. 



In ravines on the top of Mount Victoria, Hance and Bccrthe, and afterwards WHforcl. 

 Not as yet seen from elsewhere. The Asiatic Melastomacea of the Miconia tribe have been 

 distributed by Blume, Korthals, Naudin, and others, into so many small genera, founded so 

 frequently upon characters which are only specific, that it is seldom that any new species 

 discovered will fit precisely into any of them, and thus the genera of this and the two fol- 

 lowing species must remain uncertain until the whole shall have been reformed into natural 

 groups. For this operation we do not at present possess in this country sutficient materials. 

 In the meantime I have retained the present species in LlssoeJiata, where Dr. Hance pro- 

 posed to place it, as having the technical character derived from the anthers, although it has 

 the calyx rather of O.vyspora, and difters from both in inflorescence, and perhaps in the fruit, 

 which is not very perfect in the specimens I have seen. 



4. OXYSPORA, DC. 



Calyx-tube oblong ; the limb of 4 ovate lobes, without accessory teeth. 



I 2 



