MELASTOMA CE^. 



19 



its margin are inserted five or six short sepals, five or six petals 

 longer and contorted, and ten to twelve stamens nearly equal, the 

 filaments, much incurved, bearing anthers at first reversed and 

 generally provided with a short and thick basilar prominence. The 

 fruit is a berry and the fiowers 



are disposed in terminal rami- Mai eta {Caiophysa) pUosa. 



fied groups, clothed with cymes. 

 In Maieta (fig. 27), the flowers 

 are axillary and disposed in few- 

 flowered glomerules, each ac- 

 companied by four bracteoles ; 

 and the ovary is totally adherent. 

 The fruit is coriaceous. But we 

 cannot resist restoring to this 

 genus Micropkysca, having the 

 same flower, furnished with fine 

 narrow dentelate wings ; MTjrmi' 

 done, with leaves equally fur- 

 nished with a basilar vesicle, 

 and the ovary adherent to a 

 receptacle bearing above five 

 elongate tongues, alternating 

 with the sepals ; Mtjriaspora, 



with an operculiform calyx, sepals somewhat pointed, and an ovary 

 equally adherent,^ containing 6-10 cells. In Caiophysa, like the 

 preceding types, native of tropical America, the flower, 3-4-merous, 

 is otherwise that of Maieta, and the leaves are also often vesiculiferous 

 at the base ; but the inflorescence is sometimes axillary and some- 

 times terminal, like that of Tococa ; the sepals are long branched 

 and setiferous. Clidemia, another section of the same genus, has the 

 terminal or axillary inflorescence of Caiophysa, with 5-merous flowers 

 and leaves not vesiculiferous at the base. Sagiwa is inseparable 

 from Clidemia ; it has the same organs of vegetation and the same 

 flower ; only it is tetramerous and externally bristhng with hairs. 

 The inflorescence, terminal or axillary, is in cymes or glomerules, 

 sometimes capituliform and surrounded by an involucre of bracts. 



Fig. 27. Long. sect, of bud (f). 



' It has "been considered free only because it the receptacle, as Brongniart did with that of 

 has been artificially separated from the coat of Haspailia. 



c 2 



