200 MdastomacecB. [Kendrickia.. 



acute at both ends, faintly ciliate- or spinous-denticulate, 

 slightly scabrous above with short adpressed hairs, hispid on* 

 the veins beneath, finely softly hairy between them, 5 -nerved, 

 the outer ones fine and close to margin, petiole f-f in., fl. 

 large, 1^—3 in., ped. about as long as cal.-tube, clothed with; 

 hair-scales, in trichotomous, few-flowered, terminal paniculate 

 cymes ; cal.-tube broadly campanulate, completely covered 

 with adpressed, lanceolate, silvery hair-scales, segm. variable^ 

 linear- to broad-lanceolate usually about as long as tube, 

 spreading, glabrous within; pet. narrowed to base, rounded 

 or truncate ; connectives of long anth. curved over the short 

 ones ; ov. bristly-hairy on summit, style erect, longer than 

 stam. and standing over them ; fruit softly coriaceous, about 

 \ in., broadly ovoid, bursting irregularly, usually in a circle,, 

 and exposing the 5 large purplish-black pulpy placentas 

 covered with numerous minute seeds. 



Moist low country up to 3000 ft; very common. Fl. all the year;, 

 violet-mauve-coloured. 



Throughout the Indian Peninsula. 



The pulp of the ripe fruit is edible, and Moon calls the plant the 

 ' Black Strawberry tree.' 



M. ellifiliciim, Naud. in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 3, xiii. 291, is from Ceylon,, 

 collected by Leschenault. From the description I cannot see how it 

 differs from M. malabathrzcum. M. Royenii, Bl. in Flora ii. 483, also 

 from Ceylon, is referred by Thwaites also to the present species, which,, 

 indeed, does not vary much, save in the cal. segments. 



3. KENXmiCKXA,* Hk.f. 

 An epiphytic climbing shrub, 1. opp., fleshy, fl. large, in- 

 terminal umbels ; cal. very fleshy, tube adherent to ov. and 

 slightly prolonged beyond it, segm. 4 ; pet. 4, large, spreading, 

 fleshy ; stam. 8, equal, anth. opening by a single pore, connec- 

 tive produced at base into a short horn-like process ; ov. 

 inferior, 4-celled, with very numerous ovules, style simple,, 

 stout; fruit a capsule, i-celled by absorption of septa, split- 

 ting from above into 4 valves ; seeds very numerous, closely 

 packed, prismatic. — Monotypic. 



K.. Walkeri, Hk. f. in Benth., and Hk. f. Gen. Plant, i. 752 (1865).. 



Medinilla {?) Walkerii, Wight, 111. i. 217; Gardn. in Calc. Journ. 

 vni. 11. Pachycentria Walkeri, Thw. Enum. 107. Cogn. Mon. 469. 

 C. P. 385. 



Fl. B. Ind. ii. 526. Bedd. Ic. t. 271 (very poor). 



* Named in honour of G. H. Kendrick Thwaites, Director of the 

 Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya, from 1849 to 1880. The name- 

 Thwaitesia had been previously given in 1846 to a genus of Algae. Died 

 11 Sept. 1882. 



