26 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



unequal in the same pair,' entire, coriaceous, 8-7-nerved, with 

 numerous thin transverse veinules. The flowers ^ are axillary, soli- 

 tary, pedunculate, or united in cymes, often few-flowered. At the 

 base of the ovary are inserted two (or more rarely three) pairs of 

 decussate bracts forming an involucre round the bud and often also 

 round the fruit. This genus comprises nearly thirty species, all from 

 the tropical regions of the two Americas. 



Mouriri Fusa. 



Fig. 41. Long. sect, of tud (',"). 



Fig. 42. Long. sect, of flower. 



Close beside BZafcea we place Belinda ' (fig. 40), native of the same 

 countries and having the same flowers, but without involucre. They 

 are 5-8-merous, and the calyx has the same number of lobes, or 

 forms a hood of a single piece which opens irregularly or is circularly 

 detached at its base. The stamens are those of Blalcea, and the 

 ovary has from eight to sixteen multiovulate cells. The organs of 



1 As in B. anisophylla [Topobea anisophylla 

 Tri. Melast. 151, n. 18). 



2 Large or moderate, white, pink or red. 



' Neck. Elem. ii. 142.— Nahd. loc. cit. xvi. 



102 ; XTiii. t. 4.— B. H. Gen. 768, n. 119.— Tm. 

 Melast. 141. — Apatitia Destx. Sam. Proir. 42. 

 — laehyranthera Stetjd. PI. Surin. (ex. Nicp.). 

 — Asiinanther^i Karst. Linnaa, xxx. 157. 



