MELASTOMAOE^. 63 



at vertex, 4-celled ; placentae subbasilar or oftener parietal, ascending, 

 00 -ovulate. Berry umbilicate ; seeds oo , angular or cuneate. Other 

 characters of Astronia. — Glabrous shrubs or small trees ; leaves 

 petiolate or sessile, entire coriaceous, 3-nerved ; flowers" axillary soli- 

 tary or few-cymose (Kibessia), more rarely in compound ramose 

 cymes ; pedicels often 2.bracteolate. (Malaya, trop. Oceania.^) 



49? Plethiandra Hook, f.^ — "Flowers 6-merous; receptacle 

 subcampanulate. Calyx truncate, 6-denticulate. Petals 6, acuminater 

 lanceolate. Stamens to 30, equal; filaments short, filiform ; anthers, 

 linear-oblong, subrecurved inappendiculate, introrsely 2-rimose. Ger- 

 men almost quite adnate to receptacle ; cells 4, jo -ovulate ; style 

 slender, pimctiform at apex. Fruit . . . ? — A glabrous ramose shrub ; 

 twigs terete thickened at nodes ; leaves sessile oblong lanceolate 

 obscurely crenate, rather fleshy ; nerves 3, obscure ; flowers* axillary, 

 thick-pedunculate, soUtary or fasciculate, ebracteate." — (Borneo.') 



III. BLAKEiE. 



50. Blakea L. — Flowers hermaphrodite ; receptacle concave sub- 

 hemispherical or campanulate, enclosing germen adnate within and 

 produced beyond to an internally glandular and often sulcate cupula. 

 Calyx gamophyllous, often dilated, 6, 6-lobed or dentate; preflora- 

 tion . . . ? Petals 5, 6, various, contorted. Stamens 10-12, inserted 

 with perianth, subequal ; filaments slender (Topohea), or oftener rather 

 thick, incurved in bud; anthers subdolabriform, rather broad or narrow, 

 often compressed, cells introrse linear, porous or shortly rimose, con- 

 nective at base externally produced to an acute or obtuse spur some- 

 times subnil. Germen inferior, 4-6-celled, at base more or less adnate 

 to receptacle, depressed at vertex, sometimes produced to a vertical 

 cone; style erect simple, at apex stigmatose truncate or capitate, 



' Oftener bliiiah. {^wycMaj; Ann.u.SlO {Kiiesaia), 611 {Hwi/ckia, 



^ Spec, aliout 17. Dblbss. Jc. <S«;. v. t. 6. — Bl. JRectomitra, Macroplacia) ; iv. 798 [Macroplacis, 



Bijdr. 1079 {Melastoma). — Korth. Verh. Nat. EwycMa), 799 {Seetomitra). 



Geseh.t. 66 {Astronia), 67 {EwycMa) .—Mja. Fl. ' Gen. 772, n. 132. 



Ini.-Bat. i. p. i. 568 {EwycMa), 669 {Kibessia). * "Small." 



— Walp. Bep. ii. 148 ; v. 723 {Kibessia), 724 • Spec. 1. P. Motleyi Hook. f. loc. cit. 



