•Osbeckia.] Melastomacece. 193 



Seeds numerous. 

 Fruit capsular. 

 Pet. 4 or 5. 



Shrubs or herbs. 

 Stam. equal 

 Stam. unequal 

 Epiphytic climber 

 Pet. 3 . 

 Fruit baccate 

 Seed solitary {Memecylea) 



1. Osbeckia. 



2. Melastoma. 



3. Kendrickia. 



4. sonerila. 

 15. Medinilla. 

 6. memecylon. 



The most recent account of this large Order (which is mainly 

 American) is by Cogniaux in Monograph. Phanerog. vi. (1891). 



Of our 52 species (of which more than half belong to one genus, 

 Memecylon) only one, Osbeckia zeylanica, is found to be restricted to the 

 dry region ; the rest are all natives of the low country or montane zone of 

 the moist region, many species of Osbeckia and Sonerila being very 

 characteristic of the higher hills ; and only Osbeckia aspcra and 

 Memecylon umbellattim and M. capitellatum extend also into the dry 

 country. No less than 35 of our species (including 20 of Memecylon) 

 appear to be endemic. 



1. OSBECK.IA,*Z. 

 Shrubs or herbs, generally bristly-hairy ; 1. opp., 3-7- 

 nerved, fl. usually large, in small terminal cymes ; cal.-tube 

 usually campanulate, adnate to lower half of ov. and pro- 

 longed above it, generally covered with hairs, scales or stellate 

 processes, segm. 4 or 5, usually deciduous; generally with 

 small bristle-pointed teeth alternating with them ; stam. 8 or 

 10, equal, anth. large, obtuse or attenuate or beaked, con- 

 nective not produced at base, but often with 2 tubercles there; 

 ov. ^-inferior, 4-5-celled, with very numerous ovules in each 

 cell ; fruit capsular, enclosed in cal.-tube and partially adnate 

 to it below, dehiscent loculicidally from apex by pores or 

 short valves, seeds very numerous, kidney-shaped. — Sp. 51 

 niaux) ; 26 in Fl. B. Ind. 



Pet. 4. 



Anth. not beaked. 



; prostrate, softly hairy . . . 1. O. erythrocephala. 

 1 shrub, scabrous . . . .2. O. RHEEDII. 

 h. beaked ; annual herb . . .3. 0. ZEYLANICA. 



Cal.-tube with hairs, scales, or bristles. 



Cal. with simple hair, or hairy or fringed scales. 

 J., hairy above. 



L. 5 4. 0. asp] 



L. 3-ncrved 5. O. WALl 



: >ove . . . . 6. O. BUXIFOLl \. 



* In i Peter Osbeck, who travelled and collected in Japan 



and China in /751. 



i 11. O 



