of five lanceolate divisions, which fall off shortly after the petals. 
PeTALs five, obovate, blunt, truncated or emarginate, of a rich purple. 
StTaMENS short, but exserted when the flower is full blown; the fila- 
ments smooth; the anthers with very short auricles bearing a tuft of 
pedicellate glands. 
Poputar anp Groerapuicat Notice. The splendid order of 
Melastomacee forms one of the most conspicuous ornaments of the 
tropical regions of America, and no genus more so than the present 
one, including, as it no doubt should, all the Lasiandras of De Can- 
dolle. Though there are none that we can hope to grow in situations 
where we can fully appreciate their merits, yet they are most of them 
well deserving of a place in our stoves. 
The total number of species of Melastomacee now known, including 
the Asiatic ones, is probably above a thousand; far too many to be 
confined to the two great Linnean genera, Melastoma and Rhexia, 
more especially as the character which usually served to distinguish 
them, the dry and fleshy fruit, is very uncertain, and does not in 
many cases agree with the habit. Accordingly several botanists, and 
especially De Candolle, in his Prodromus, have established divisions 
_ so as to distribute the total number into above seventy genera. More 
recent discoveries and observation have confirmed many of these, and 
modified others. Pleroma, in which the present species is placed, was 
originally established by Don, for this and two or three other species 
which he supposed to have the fleshy fruits of Melastoma. This 
appears to have been a mistake; and as Pleroma does not, in any 
other point, differ from the very natural genus Lasiandra, subsequently 
established, the two have now to be united under Don’s original 
name. 
INTRODUCTION; WHERE GROWN; CuLTurE. This beautiful shrub 
was introduced from Brazil to the Sion House Garden in 1819. Our 
drawing was made in September last, in the Royal Gardens at Kew. 
To flower this plant in perfection it must be kept in a cool stove, in a 
mixture of peat and loam, and have frequent removes into larger pots. 
It may be increased from cuttings of the een wood. 
Derivation OF THE Nam 
Se sca FULLNESS, the application er which word is not very 
clear MALLA, from trepouadXo, WHICH HAS HAIRS ON ONE SIDE, 
another pean inapplicable term to a plant which is hairy all over. 
shite 
MELASTOMA HETEROMALLA. Don: raise t.644, Simms: Bot. Mag. 2337 
