Dissoohceta.] lx. MBLASTOMACEiE. (C. B. Clarke.) 543 



14. :iatSSOCXlETA, mume. 



Shrubs, usually twiners. Leaves opposite, petioled or nearly sessile, elliptic 

 or oWong-lanceolate, rounded at the hase, S-nerved from the base besides two 

 submarginal nerves, entire. Flowers large or small, in terminal sometimes 

 leafy panicles, purple or white, bracts large or small. Calyx-tube campanulate- 

 ^cylindric, densely stellate-tomentose pubescent or glabrous ; limb obscurely 

 -4-lobed, more rarely distinctly 4-toothed, persistent. Petals 4. Stamens 8, un- 

 - equal, 4 shorter sometimes wanting, connective of the 4 longer with 2 long 

 bristles in front at the base (in all the Indian species). Ovary adnate to the 

 calyx, 4rcelled, apex glabrous or densely hairy ; style filiform ; ovules very 

 many, placentas axile. Berry ovoid or elliptic, crowned with the calyx-limb. 

 Seeds ellipsoid, flattened on the side of the raphe. — Distkib. Species 16, ex- 

 tending from Pinang and Malacca throughout Malaya to the Philippines. 



* Anthers very long, attenuccte upwards. 



* 



1. S. annulata, Hooh.f. ms.; Triana in Trans. I/mn. Soc. xxviii. 83; 

 branches panicle and leaves beneath with much rufous stellate tomentum, panicle 

 narrow leafy with large bracts to the young flowers, calyx-tube of the buds more 

 than J in. densely wooUy-rufous and stellate-hairy, teeth distinctly triangular. 

 -Melastoma bracteatum. Wall. Cat. 4044, partly. 



Pinang; TVallich, Griffith (Kew Distrib. No. 2268). Mount Ophir, Malacca, 

 sMaingay No. 788. — ^Disteib. Borneo. 



Leaves 3-41 in., glabrous above or minutely pubescent on the nerves ; petiole J in. 

 Paniole consisting of axillary cymes (exactly resembling that of Marumia reticvldia) ; 

 bracts f in., oblong, caducous ; pedicels lees than \ in. Fruit (not ripe) ellipsoid, 

 calyx-mouth enlarged, teeth somewhat rounded. — The stem of this plant has rings 

 at the nodes as in Marwmia : its natural affinity seems altogether with Manimia 

 reticulata and M. nemorqsa : it recedes from M. reticulata only by the absence of the 

 long bristles on the calyx-tube so common in Marumia ; from M. nemorosa it recedes 

 by the quasi-paniculate inflorescence and the absence of any twisted hairs at the base 



■ of the connective other than the two long bristles in front. 



2. D. punctulata, Sbok.f. 7ns.; Triana in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxviii. 83; 

 branches and panicle densely closely dark-red furfuraceous, panicle narrow not 

 leafy, bracts small linear deciduous, calyx-tube i-i in. densely dark-red furfu- 

 raceous, teeth short triangular in the expanded flower. 



Maiacca; Griffith (Kew Distrib, No. 2291); MaingayTSo. 789. Singapohe and 

 Pinang; Walker. 



Leaves 2 J-3| in., glabrous above, with scattered dark-red stellate hairs beneath ; 

 petiole |-f in. Panicle terminal, pedicels hardly more than ^ in. Fruit (not ripe) 

 -campanulate (seems about to become ovoid), calyx-teeth not then prominent, nor the 

 month enlarged. 



3. D. bracteata, Slume in Flora, 1831, 495 ; branches upwards and 

 panicle with small stellate pubescence, panicle somewhat spreading not leafy, 

 bracts large oblong longer than the expanding buds, calyx-tube of the buds 

 |-^ in. with more or less stellate pubescence limb (in the bud) nearly entire or 

 very obscm-ely 4-toothed. Miq. Fl. Lnd. Bat. i. pt. i. 629 ; Triana in Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. xxviii. 84. D. bracteosa, Naud. in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 3. xv. 76 ; 

 Miq. Fl. Lnd. Bat. i. pt. i. 527. Melastoma bracteatum, Jack in Trans. Linn. 



■ Soc. xiv. 9 ; Wall. Cat. 4044, partly. 



