1900.] G. King — Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 53 



or acute ; upper surface glabrous ; length 2 5 to 5 in. ; breadth 1*2 to 

 22 in. ; petiole '3 to *5 in. Panicles both axillary and terminal, the 

 former shorter than the leaves or slightly exceeding them, the latter 

 longer, all rather lax, the branchlets divaricating, cymose, and with a 

 few short, linear, deciduous bractlets. Flowers nearly 1 in. long (in- 

 cluding the stamens). Calyx-tube oblong-campanulate or funnel-shaped, 

 densely lepidote-stellate ; the mouth expanded and obscurely 4-toothed. 

 Petals obovate-oblong, blunt, glabrous. Stamens 8, usually equal (four 

 sometimes shorter or obsolete) ; basal processes long, linear, sub-erect. 

 Fruit cylindric-campanulate, sub-glabrous, crowned by the slightly 

 enlarged limb of the calyx, *25 in. long. Blume, Mus. Bot. I, 36 (excl. 

 syn. Korth.); Naudin in Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. 3, XV, 69, tab. 4 fig.; 

 Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. I, pt. I, 528 ; Triana in Trans. Linn. Soc. XXVIII, 

 83, tab. VII, fig. 896 ; C. B. Clarke in Hook. fil. Fl. Br. Ind. IT, 544 ; 

 Cogn. in DC. Mon. Phan. VII, 557. Melastoma pallida, Jack in Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. XIV, 12 ; DC. Prodr. Ill, 150 ; Wall. Cat. 4049. Dissocli&ta 

 ovalifolia and D. superba, Naud. I.e. 76 and 77. D. astrotricha, Miq. I.e. 

 Suppl. 318. 



In all the provinces except the Nicobar and Andaman Islands ; 

 common. 



The four stamens which are usually shorter than the other are sometimes 

 obsolete. 



6. Dissoch^ta . gracilis, Blume in Flora, 1831, 498. A strag- 

 gling or scandent shrub ; young branches slender, bluntly 4-angled, 

 the nodes swollen and transversely ridged, minutely scaly like the 

 petioles, leaves and panicles. Leaves 5-nerved (the lateral pair slender), 

 broadly lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, rounded at the bnse and shortly 

 acuminate at the apex; length 3 to 45 in.; breadth 1*5 to 1*8 in.; 

 petiole *2 to '4 in. Panicles axillary and terminal, the former shorter 

 than, and the latter longer than the leaves, slender, spreading, lax, 

 many-flowered ; bracts few, narrowly oblong, caducous. Flowers *35 

 in. long, on filiform pedicels longer than themselves. Calyx-tube 

 narrowly campanulate, minutely stellate-pubescent, the mouth glabrous, 

 sub-truncate, everted, and obscurely 4-toothed. Petals 4, broadly ovate 

 or sub-orbicular, blunt. Stamens 8 ; four large, perfect, rather short, 

 with a broad truncate 2-pored apex ; the four imperfect small, narrow ; 

 all with two erect, filiform flat basal appendages. Fruit sub-globular, 

 crowned by the narrow limb, almost glabrous, 1 to *15 in. in diam. 

 Korthals Verb. Nat. Gesch. Bot. 237; Naud. in Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. 3, 

 XV, 75; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. I, pt. I, 526; Triana in Trans. Linn. Soc. 

 XXVIII, 83, tab. VII, fig. 89c; C. B. Clarke in Hook. fil. Fl. Br. Ind. 

 II, 544 ; Cogn. in DC. Mon. Phan. VII, 559. Melastoma gracile, Jack 



