• MELASTOMACE^. 



11 



appendages in the intervals between the sepals ; Monolena, having 

 the stamens furnished with a small interior basilar appendage, and 



Bertolonia marmorata. 



Bertphnia {Triolena) 

 scorpioides. 



Fig. 15. Fruit. • Fig. 14. Long. sect, of flower. 



the style thickened at the base ; Diolena, in which this appendage is 

 triple, the middle prominence being but little developed, and Triolena 

 (fig. 16), in which this middle prominence is nearly (but not con- 

 stantly) as pronounced as the two others. 

 All these plants are herbaceous perennials, 

 natives of tropical America. 



Gravesia is Bertolonia with a five- instead 

 of a three-celled ovary. The stamens, equal 

 or slightly unequal, are generally furnished 

 with an anterior or posterior appendage. 

 The flowers are in scorpioid cymes. They 

 are herbaceous or frutescent plants of Mada- 

 gascar and of tropical western Africa. In 

 Sonerila (fig. 17, 18), natives of tropical 

 Asia, the flowers are-trimerous, with one or 

 two verticils of three stamens and an ovary 

 with three alternipetalous cells. They are 

 grouped in scorpioid cymes. The same is 

 the case in Sarcopyramis, an Indian herb, whose flower is tetramerous, 

 with a large cuplike receptacle ; but the terminal cymes are short, 

 capituliform, and surrounded by bracts forming an involucre. The 



Fig. 16. Stamen. 



