MELASTOMACEiE. 



581 



flowers and fruit from the inflorescence ; but the plant is probably a 

 congener of the foregoing species. The branches are very stout, 

 terete, nodose ; the younger parts hirsute with a dense and coarse 

 ferrugineous pubescence, as are the elongated petioles (2 or 3 inches 

 long); and the nascent foliage is ferrugineous with a similar, but 

 shorter pubescence. Leaves oval, sometimes inclining to ovate, glabrate, 

 chartaceous, from 5 to 8 inches long and 3 to 5 inches broad, either 

 obtuse or slightly acuminate, cordate at the base, but not strongly so, 

 triple-ribbed from near the base, and with one or two pairs of sinuous 

 intramarginal nerves, transversely veined, and with evident coarsely 

 reticulated veinlets. Cyme corymbose, triclwtomous, compound, scarcely 

 exceeding the petioles ; the ramifications ferrugineous-liirsute, angled, 

 evidently many-flowered. 



Some rufous-hirsute foliage of another Melastomaceous plant, per- 

 haps of this genus, occurs in the Samoan collection, from the moun- 

 tains of Upolu. Also, under the name of Melastoma ? cereacea, Dr. 

 Pickering, in his notes, mentions a shrub, from the mountains of 

 Tutuila, occuring at the elevation of about 2,000 feet, with broad, 

 five-ribbed and smooth leaves, a smooth and five-cleft calyx, and 

 with white, wax-like petals: this is probably an Astronia; but I do 

 not find indications of any corresponding specimens in the collection. 

 There are some indeterminable fragments of other species from the 

 Feejee Islands. 



3. ASTRONIDIUM, Nov. Gen. 



Flores tetrameri. Galycis tubus hemisplicericus, nudus; limbus repando- 

 quadridentatus seu inxiequaliter pluri-(6-8)-denticulatus. Petala 4. 

 Stamina 8, cequalia: filamenta complanata, subulata, brevia: anthera3 

 oblongo-lineares, antice rima duplici longitudinali dehiscentes ; <xm- 

 nectivo dorsali camoso angusto basi calcarato. Stylus filiformis: 

 stigma minutum, simplicissimum. Ovarium omnino adnatum, tri- 

 quadrilocidare : placentae efundo locidorum exortos, superne dilatatos, 

 compressor. Capsula globosa. Semina numerosissima. — Arbuscida 

 glabra, micrantha, microcarpa, facie Astroniae. 



The plant in question differs from Astronia, it would seem gene- 



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