MELASTOMA CE^. 



13 



Blaatus parvijloriis. 



prominences, two anterior and one posterior. The ovary adheres to 

 the receptacle in the interval between the stamens, and becomes a 

 capsule, the seeds of which are straight, oblong or pyrkmidal, but 

 not curved. They are .shrubs from tropical Asia. In 0. pauciflora 

 and some kiiidred species, of which the genus Allomorphia has been 

 made, the flowers are smaller but similarly disposed ; and the anthers, 

 eight to ten in number, have the two anterior prominences at the 

 base nil or but slightly developed, and the posterior a little more 

 visible. We make this only a section of Oxyspora. In Bredia, 

 shrubs of China and Japan, the terminal inflorescence is less rich ; 

 and the anthers, eight in number, more or less unequal, have one 

 posterior and two anterior basilar prominences ; but the latter are 

 somewhat more distinct than in Oxyspora. 

 In Barthea chinensis, which we refer as a 

 section to the same genus, the anterior 

 prominences are slender and setiform, 

 while the posterior is short and thick ; 

 but the rest of the flower is similar. 

 Blastus may be defined as Oxyspora with 

 axillary inflorescence. The first species 

 of this genus known (fig. 20) had only 

 four-alternipetalous stamens, with promi- 

 nences at the base of the anther almost 

 nil or very indistinct. But others, called 

 Dreissenia and Anerindeistus, have 8 

 stamens, 4 of which, often very small, 

 are oppositipetalous. The same is true 

 of Ochthocharis, which nearly always has 

 pentamerous flowers, and the posterior prominence of the connective 

 is often somewhat more developed. KendricJcia Walkeri, a climbing 

 shrub of Ceylon, connects the preceding genera with Medinilla. It 

 has the tetramerous flowers of the latter with 4 obtuse very thick 

 petals, and 8 stamens whose connective is prolonged at the base in a 

 •posterior wedge-shaped prominence. The flowers form terminal 

 umbeUiform cymes, and the fruit is dry at maturity, while it become^ 

 .fleshy in all the following genera. 



These form a small group (Medinilhce) hitherto raised to the rank 

 of a tribe. Medinilla (fig. 21) itself has a truncate calyx surmounting 

 the margin of a receptacle in the form of a sac, purse or gourd, 



Fi-. 20. Flower -(•,"). 



