12 Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. 



Descr. — Stem shrubby, scandent, radicant. Branches round, 

 glabrous, leafy. Leaves opposite, petiolate, oval-oblong, obtuse, 

 glabrous, entire, 3-nerved at the base, with other two springing from 

 the midrib a little higher up, dark green and shining above, pale 

 and opaque beneath, about 3 inches long, and from 15-18 lines 

 broad : petiole 4-6 lines long, slightly channeled above. Peduncles 

 terminal, in threes about 1£ inch long, round, glabrous. Calyx tube 

 obovate, obtusely 8-angled, 3 lines long : limb 4-lobed, lobes broadly 

 ovate, obtuse, very much thickened at the apex, the whole of a 

 reddish colour, except the tips of the lobes which are greenish. 

 Petals 4, fleshy, alternate with the lobes of the calyx, and inserted 

 on their base, obliquely obovate, obtuse, of a beautiful rose colour, 

 15 lines long, 11 lines broad, in aestivation twisted from left and 

 right. Stamens 8, about equal, a little declinate : filaments flattened, 

 of a yellowish colour, about 5 lines long, inserted on the top of the 

 tube of the calyx : anthers oblong, compressed, 2-celled, the cells 

 opening by a single pore at the apex, 5 lines long, of a yellow colour, 

 the connective produced at the base into a curved horn-like process, 

 about 2 lines long. Ovary enclosed in the tube of the calyx, to 

 which its lower half adheres, the free portion 4-sulcate, glabrous, 4- 

 celled, the cells with numerous ovules in each, attached horizontally 

 to a fleshy placenta, which projects from the inner angle. Style 

 filiform, longer than the stamens, curved at the apex. Stigma 

 simple. Ripe/huY not seen. 



Obs. — Of the three species of this genus, which are natives 

 of Ceylon, and now described for the first time, the present 

 is by far the most beautiful. It runs up the large stems of 

 forest trees like ivy, and produces its beautiful, large, rose 

 coloured blossoms in the greatest profusion in the months of 

 May and June. I have met with it on the Hautane range, 

 above Rambodde, at Dimboold, and on Adam's Peak. 



Medinilla fuchsioides, Gardn. 

 M. rands dichotomis, ramulis, teretibus, foliis oppositis 

 sessilibus elliptico-oblongis basi sabcuneatis obtusis parce 



