198 Melastomacece. \Osbeckia. 



than tube, triangular-lanceolate, acute, ciliate, tipped with a 

 stellate process; pet. 5, 1-1^ in., finely ciliate; fruit-cal. 

 almost prickly with the hardened persistent bases of the 

 stellate processes. 



Upper montane zone to 7000 ft.; common. About Nuwara Eliya 

 abundant ; Ramboda ; Matale ; Galagama ; Elk Plains. Fl. Jan.-April, 

 October ; brilliant purplish-crimson. 



Endemic. 



A very showy plant, the flowers often over 2§ in. across, and produced 

 in great abundance. Variable in form and size of leaf. When withering 

 the leaves turn a bright orange-scarlet on upper surface. 



O. elliptica, Naud, 1. c. 62, is referred to this by Thwaites and Triana, 

 but Cogniaux (1. c. 320) maintains it as distinct, distinguished by 1. rounded 

 at both ends and 3-nerved, and broadly triangular cal.-segm. 



8. O. TCoonii, Thiv. Enum. 105 (1859). 



Melastoma refiens, Moon Cat. 35. Thw. Enum. 105. Cogn. 1. c. 319. 

 C. P. 2800. 



Fl. B. Ind. ii. 520. 



Herbaceous, stems long, prostrate, rooting at the nodes, 

 bristly-hairy ; 1. oval ij-2| in., acute at both ends, entire, 

 coarsely hairy on both sides, 5-nerved, petiole ^— § in.; fl. 

 rather small, about 1 in., on slender hairy ped., usually in 

 threes, terminating short erect axillary branches from the 

 prostrate stems, bracts small, rotundate ; cal.-tube shortly 

 campanulate, thickly studded with long spreading processes, 

 which are bristly on the sides and expand at summit into a 

 peltate head with long radiating bristles, segm. linear-lanceo- 

 late nearly equalling tube, strongly ciliate and bristly, inter- 

 mediate teeth conspicuous, very bristly ; pet. 5, ciliate ; anth. 

 moderately attenuate. 



Low moist country ; rare. Colombo (Moon) ; Sittawaka; Paregodde; 

 Kuruwita Korale. Fl. Sept.-Jan.; purplish-pink. 



Endemic. 



9. O. octandra, DC. Prod. iii. 142 (ii 



Herm. Mus. 36. Fl. Zeyl. n. 173. Melastoma oclandra, L. Sp. PI. 

 391. O. polycephala, Naud. in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 3, xiv. 67. O. virgata, 

 Don, Thw. Enum. 105. C. P. 507, 2619. 



Fl. B. Ind. ii. 521. Wight, Ic. t. 376 (not good). 



A small erect shrub, with many erect virgate branches, 

 bark pale reddish-brown, flaking off in fibrous pieces, young 

 shoots quadrangular, hispid with adpressed bristly hairs ; 

 1. narrowly lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, shortly tapering 

 to base, subacute, very faintly serrate, ciliate, almost entirely 

 glabrous above, glaucous green and with scattered long hairs 

 beneath, 3-nerved, petiole £ in., flat, hairy ; fl. about i| in., on 

 stout hairy ped. about half length of cal.-tube, numerous in 

 close corymbose or paniculate terminal cymes ; cal.-tube long- 



