Osbeckia.] Melastomacece. 197 



Endemic. 



Triana 1. c. combines with var. /3 O. bicxifolia, var. minor, to which the 

 leaves have much resemblance. 



6. O. buxifolia, Arti. in Hk. Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. 309 (1836). 

 Melastoma buxifolia, Moon Cat. 35. Thw. Enum. 105. C. P. 1572. 

 Fl. B. Ind. ii. 518. 



A flat-topped very much - branched bush 5-8 ft. high, 

 branchlets densely covered with copious ferrugineous wool ; 

 1. very numerous, crowded, small, f— f in., rotundate or broadly 

 oval, rounded or subcordate at base, emarginate at apex, 

 margin and apex revolute, upper surface striate with raised 

 lines, nearly glabrous when mature, densely ferrugineous- 

 woolly beneath, coriaceous, rigid, strongly 5- (or 7-) nerved, 

 the nerves much depressed on upper surface, petioles short, 

 with long rusty hair ; fi. large 2\ in., sessile, solitary or in 

 threes, terminal on every twig, bracts leaf-like, close beneath 

 and adpressed to cal. ; cal. surrounded at base by long rufous 

 setae, tube completely covered by scales bearing tufts of long 

 shaggy rufous hair, segm. narrowly triangular, pectinate on 

 margin, shaggy with hair outside, glabrous within, with dense 

 tuft of very long bristles on top ; pet. 5, finely woolly-ciliate. 

 Var /3, minor, Thw. I. c. (not O. minor, Triana), C. P. 2618. 



L. smaller, quite glabrous above with the veins less in- 

 dented ; cal.-tube densely covered with very long simple 

 rufous woolly hair. 



Upper montane zone above 600c ft.; rather common. Adam's Peak 

 (Moon); Pedurutalagala. Var. j3, Nuwara Eliya; Totapella; Adam's 

 Peak. Fl. March, April, September; rich mauve colour. 



Endemic. 



There are tufts of persistent hair at each node between the leaf-bases, 

 apparently stipular in nature. A most beautiful shrub, and very profuse 

 in flowers. 



7. O. rubicunda, Am. in Hk. Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. 309 (1836). 

 Thw. Enum. 105. C. P. 52. 



Fl. 13. Ind. ii. 520. 



A large much-branched bush, bark pale yellowish-grey, 

 twigs sub-quadrangular, very hispid with spreading scale-like 

 hair; 1. 1-3 in., variable, oblong-oval oblong-lanceolate or 

 somewhat ovate, rounded or subcordate at base, acute or sub- 

 acute at apex, minutely spinous-serrate, scabrous-hairy on 

 both sides, pale beneath, rather thick but not stiff, 5-nerved, 

 peti § in., very hispid ; fl. very large, on very short ped., 



3-8 together crowded in terminal clusters ; cal.-tube thickly 

 studded with large stalked processes with the summit ex- 

 panded peltate long ciliate or stellate, segm. a little shorter 



