Memecylon] LIV, MELASTOMACEA, 369 
handles of hatchets, etc. ; the fruit of this tree, which consists 
of clear blue berries, is eaten by the natives. Apparently the 
same plant (or plants) is that mentioned by Welwitsch, Apont. 
p. 570, under n. 169, as a slender tree, belonging to the sub-order 
Memecylez and indigenous in Pungo Andongo, with well- 
flavoured blue berries ; these when eaten colour the lips black, 
and thus point to the origin of the name Melastoma. 
LV. PLECTRONIACEA. 
1, PLECTRONIA L. Mant. Pl. (i.) p. 6 (1767), neque DC. nec 
Benth. & Hook. f. Olinia Thunb. in Rom. Archiv. ii., pars 1, p. 4 
(1799); Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Pl.i. p. 785. 
1. P. ventosa L. Mant. Pl. (i.) p. 52 (1767), excl. syn. ; Herb. 
Linn. !; neque DC. nec Sond. 
Olinia cymosa Thunb, Rom. Archiv. ii, pars 1, p, 4 (1799); 
Sonder in Harv. & Sond. Fl. Cap. ii. p. 520 (1862); Hiern in 
Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 485. P. floribunda Buchinger ex Krauss 
in Flora, 1844, p. 348. 
Houriusa.—A shrub 4 to 7 ft. high, branched nearly from the base ; 
branches nodose, patent ; branchlets acutely tetragonal ; leaves varying 
from elliptical to ovate, rather obtuse and emarginate at the apex, 
thinly coriaceous, deep-green above, paler beneath, midrib and veins 
beautifully atro-sanguineous, densely pellucid-venulose, margin 
narrowly cartilaginous ; flowers very sweetly fragrant with the aroma 
almost of Daphne; calyx green, truncate at the mouth, obscurely 
5-toothed ; petals (possibly to be considered calyx-lobes?) 5, always 
petaloid, whitish, sessile with a broad base on the inner face of the 
throat or limb of the calyx, alternating with 5 interposed scales ; 
stamens 5, opposite the scales and inserted below them; ovary 
minute, 5-celled or sometimes only 3- or 4-celled ; ovules pendulous 
from a central column ; style straight, firm, subcoriaceous, sparingly 
but constantly pilose with spreading hairs; stigma truncate. In 
rocky hilly thickets between Humpata and Lopollo, sporadic ; fl. 
30 Dec. 1859. Near Lopollo ; fl. March 1860. No. 991. 
Welwitsch, in a letter to me, 16 Sept. 1870, with reference to this 
plant wrote as follows :—“ In the living plant the so-called petals look 
very different in colour, structure, and consistence from the calyx ; 
besides, the insertion seemed to me always to be inside the calycine 
margin. The white bracts at the base of the flowers I have never 
found so conspicuous as they seem to occur on the Cape plant ; 
coloured bracts, of the same colour as the flowers, are very frequent 
among Combretaceous genera, but never a multilocular ovary.” 
Olinia usambarensis Gilg in Eng. & Prantl. Nat. Pflanzenfam. 
iv. 3, p. 216 fig. 744—e (p. 215) (1894) and in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. xix. 
p. 278 (1894) agrees in the dry state very closely with our 
specimens; it was collected by Holst n. 9115 in the elevated 
forest-region of Usambara at Kwa Mochuza in August 1893. 
This genus presents points of difficulty in many respects, and 
especially with reference to its structure, its position in the 
‘Calyciflore, the limitation of its species, and its correct name. 
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