584 PHANEROGAMIA. 



sparsely hispid when young, soon glabrate. Leaves oval, nearly 

 obtuse, rounded and sometimes emarginate at the base, entire, thick 

 and coriaceous in texture, perhaps somewhat fleshy in the living 

 plant, dull, about 3 inches long and 2 inches wide, strongly three- 

 ribbed, and with a pair of less conspicuous nerves near the margin ; 

 the ribs prominent underneath and at first furnished with a few 

 scattered hispid hairs ; the veins immersed and obscure : petioles 

 stout, from 2 to 4 lines in length. Peduncles terminating the branches, 

 about 6 or 9 lines long, sparsely hispid when young, usually 

 once or twice trichotomous, the divisions subtended with ovate or 

 oblong, leaf-like, closely sessile bracts ; each partial peduncle (4 to 9 

 lines long) terminated with a several-flowered capitate glomerule, or a 

 cluster of 3 sessile glomerules, composed of thickish and foliaceom 

 involucral and involucellate bracts, subtending and enclosing the sessile 

 flowers. Bracts of the involucre 3 or 4, broadly oval, very obtuse, 

 slightly tinged with purple; of the involucel 2, or sometimes 3, 

 similar to those of the common involucre, but narrower and some- 

 what carinate below the middle, as long as or longer than the flower 

 they embrace. Calyx 3 lines long, glabrous ; the tube turbinate, some- 

 what five-angled, lightly ten-nerved; the limb five-cleft; the teeth 

 double; the exterior subulate from a broad base, thick, very acute, 

 nearly a line and a half long, at first setose-pointed, and often fur- 

 nished with a stout bristle in the intervening sinuses or near their 

 margin : the interior teeth membranaceous, considerably shorter, very 

 obtuse, connate with the exterior to above the middle. Petals 5, ovate, 

 acute, exceeding the outer calyx-lobes, purple? yStamem 10, equal 

 and similar, or very nearly so : filaments filiform, naked, as long as 

 the anthers: the latter linear-subulate, with the apex a little recurved, 

 opening by a minute terminal pore: the connective wholly destitute of 

 any appendage or protuberance. Style filiform, as long as the stamens : 

 stigma acute, punctiform. Ovary ovoid, free from the calyx, except 

 the very base, glabrous and naked, but with a crown of several (8 or 

 10) strong bristles surrounding the base of the style, 4-5-celled; with 

 as many placental projecting from the axis. Ovules very numerous, 

 minute, roundish, amphitropous or campylotropous ? Fruit not seen. 



I am indebted to M. Naudin of Paris, the distinguished recent 

 monographer of this order, for the investigation and name of this 

 remarkable plant, which appears so unlike any known American 

 Melastomacea, as to suggest the doubt whether the specimen may not 



