Mi tli it ilia] 



LII. MELASTOMArE.E 



335 



elliptic, 3-nerved, often a second pair higher up, blade 3-6 in., petiole short. Fl. pink, 

 anthers dark blue, fr. ovoid, red or black when ripe, edible. 2. M. Beddomei, C. B. Clarke 

 1 .1/. radicans, Bedd. Ic. t. 1&4). Evergreen forests of the Western Ghats from Coorg 

 southwards. A fleshy epiphyte, 1. thick-fleshy, obtuse, nearly orbicular, H in. Fl. 

 lj in. long, solitary, on axillary peduncles, petals 4, pure white, spathulate. 3. M. 

 malabarica, Bedd. Ic. t. 157. Nilgiris, western slopes. Anamalais. Epiphytic. 1. very 

 fleshy, elliptic, prominently 3- occasionally 5-nerved. Peduncles axillary, sometimes 

 several together, 3-5-rld. FL. peduncles and pedicels of a brilliant crimson. 



B. Fl. in terminal cymes. 



4. M. himalayana, Hook f. Sikkim '2,500-6,000 ft. Khasi hills. L. nearly sessile, 

 broadly elliptic, rami heat ions of cymes slender, pedicels divaricate in fruit. Fl. H in. 

 across, ruse coloured. 5. M. pauciflora, Hook. f. Darjiling. Branchlets obtusely qtiad- 

 rangular, I. sessile, C3'mes few-fid. 



Blaatus cochinchinensis, Lour. Assam (Nam bar Forest, March 1879 D.B.). China, 

 Tonkin, Cochin China, Formosa. A shrub, young shoots and young 1. clothed with 

 round resinous scales, I. elliptic-lanceolate, blade 3-6, petiole i-1 in. long, 3 basal nerves 

 joined by distant sec. n. Fl. small, tetramerous. white, on minutely tubercled pedicels 

 in sessile umbels sometimes axillary, more often from the axils of fallen leaves, stamens 

 I. equal. Capsule tightly enclosed by the calyx, loculicidally 4-valved. Seeds minute, 

 numerous, on a central 4-winged placentiferous axis, at both ends long acuminate, 

 Fa Icate. 



5. MEMECYLON, Linn. : Fl. Brit. Ind. ii. 553. 



Evergreen glabrous shrubs or trees. L. coriaceous, penninerved, sec. n. 

 often obscure, rarely apparently 3-nerved. Fl. blue or white, tetramerous, in 

 lateral compound, often umbelliform cymes, or sessile in compact fascicles 

 Free portion of calyx produced far beyond and generally much wider than the 

 ovary. Stamens S. equal, anthers small opening by slits, connective generally 

 large, fleshy, prolonged consider- 

 ably below the anthers. Ovary 

 inferior I -celled, apes glabrous, 

 surmounted by a disk, frequently 

 with 8 radiating grooves, style 

 long, filiform. Fr. more or less 

 fleshy, surmounted bythecalyx- 

 limb, 1-, rarely '2-soedod, cotyle- 

 dons i volute. Species about 



l.">i I, most in India, the Malay 

 Peninsula and A rchipelago, sev- 

 eral in tropical Africa, a few in 

 I '"1\ nosia and An-I ralia. 



A. Leaves pel iolate, acute at 



both ends, elliptic or elliptic- 

 lam late, fl. pedicelled, in pe 



dunculate cymes, 



I. M. edule, Roxb. Cor. PI. 

 t. 82 1795).— Syn. .1/. umbella- 

 tnm, Burm. f. Fl. [nd. ^7 L768 

 which may have to to ke preced- 



cn I' the well-known Dame .'/. 



• duh : .1/. tin, -i, trin in. BLoenig; 

 Wight III. t. 93; .1/. rami- 



fiorum, I .a III. Yorn. Xirti*n. 



rjriya; Anjun, Anjani, Kurpa, 

 Mar.; Udatalli, 'Kan.: Alii, 



Tel.; Kassan, Kayan, Tam. r,,.. i 



