MELASTOMA GEM. 5 



herbaceous, with the connective more or less prolonged inferiorly and 

 with appendages more or less developed. Some true Osheckias have 

 the flower glabrous or nearly so ; and the hairs, when present, are 

 simple and not starred. The same is true of Nerophita, the connective 

 of which is scarcely prominent at the base ; of Guyonia, in which the 

 basilar tubercles totally disappear, so that the filament and connective 

 appear continuous without break. In 0. capitata, chineiisis, &c., the 

 hairs are starred and the connective is accompanied by two rather 

 salient horns ; but the anthers above are shorter than in the other 

 species. In Tristemmaf which we make only a section of OshecMa, 

 the habit is nearly that of Melastoma ; the foot of the connective and 

 its tubercles are a little more prominent than in the true Osheckias, 

 and the receptacle is bare as in Guyonia, though it has some salient 

 transverse rings bearing simple hairs. 



Dichcetanthera may be defined as OsbecJcia with simple hairs, short 

 thick and contorted sepals, and stamens, eight to ten in number, 

 with filament at first incurved below the anther sessile on its summit. 

 The latter has within its base two curved horns which are long in 

 Dichcetanthera proper and short in Dionychia. They are shrubs of 

 Madagascar, with knotty branches and flowers disposed in terminal 

 corymbiform cymes. ^ 



To one particular tribe (Acisantherew) has been given the name of 

 a genus established by P. Beowne in 1756, comprising plants of 

 tropical America, with gynse'cium generally free, stamens unequal or 

 nearly equal, ordinarily destitute of starred hairs between the sepals, 

 and a general organization in other respects that of Osbeckia. Such are 

 the characters oi Acisanthcra, a congener, in our opinion, of Tibouchina, 

 whose name, though more recent,^ has been preferred, with sepals of 

 nearly the same length as the receptacle, and stamens, to the 

 number of eight or ten, having the connective considerably pro- 

 longed at the base, with two interior ascending horns, inserted at 

 the top of the filament. It comprises herbs, often annual, with small 

 opposite leaves, an ovary with 2-5 cells and seeds more or less 

 curved, finely punctuated. Some Tibouchinas have stamens dehiscing 



■ Binophora spemieroides, a shrub of Fernando euiarginate base ; by its glabrous capsule open- 



Po, unknown to us, is distinguished from the ing irregularly at maturity. Its leaves are 



preceding genera by its anthers, ten in number, serrulate. 

 Vith connective prolonged and dilated at its '&ee Adans:nifi,-ii.\i. 95. 



