MELASTOMACE^E. 575 



to 6 inches long, li to 2i inches wide, rounded, or often somewhat 

 contracted, but obtuse at the base, membranaceo-chartaceous in texture, 

 dull, a little paler underneath, pinnately-veined from a rather promi- 

 nent midrib, the considerably manifest veins arcuately confluent within 

 the margin into a sinuous false vein. Inflorescence in the specimens 

 all below the foliage of the season, from nodes the leaves of which 

 have fallen. Peduncles mostly 2 or 3 together, somewhat angular, half 

 an inch long, or rarely shorter, dividing into 3 to 5 rays, each bearing 

 a many-flowered umbel, or the stronger ones proliferous. Pedicels 

 about the length of the flower-bud, half a line long, after anthesis 

 becoming a line or more in length, not bracteolate. Calyx turbinate, 

 with a truncate and entire border, within furnished with 8 very salient 

 radiating lamellce, forming as many deep cells in which the inflexed 

 anthers lie before anthesis, and with as many intermediate, slightly 

 salient ribs, to the summit of which the stamens are attached. Corolla 

 small, perhaps caducous before expansion ; the petals 4, very broad. 

 Anthers oblong, on short filaments, the cells nearly straight and 

 parallel, the connective produced below into a thickish, but flat, 

 oblong-lanceolate, acutish appendage, which exceeds the cells in length, 

 and in the bud is superior, almost equalling the unexpanded petals. 

 Style filiform : stigma terminal, minute. Ovary one-celled, with a 

 slight trace of several parietal projections. Ovules 12, sometimes 8, 

 oblique, scarcely reniform, on stout funiculi. Fruit not seen. 



I cannot identify this with any of the numerous Malayan species 

 which have recently been published. It appears to be allied to M. 

 panicidatum of Jack, and M. acuminatissimum of Blume. Particularly 

 conspicuous in this speoies are the radiating lamelkB within the calyx, 

 well indicated by Loureiro in the character of Scutula, but not men- 

 tioned by DeCandolle, who seems in other respects to have misappre- 

 hended Loureiro's description. 



Plate 71. — Memecylon Calderense : a branch, in flower, of the 

 natural size. Fig. 1. A flower-bud. 2. Vertical section of the same. 

 3. A petal from the bud. 4, 5, 6. Anterior, posterior, and lateral 

 views of a stamen, in the inverted position it occupies in the bud. 

 7. A flower, after the corolla and stamens have fallen. 8. Vertical 

 section of the same. 9. An ovule from the same. 10. Transverse 

 section of an ovary and its 12 ovules.— The details magnified. 



