40 CALYCIFLOR.E. 



from the base to the apex. Flowers terminal, usually 

 thyrsoid. By these characters and the long beaked an- 

 thers, the Melastomaceae are readily recognized, and the 

 different genera, of which the family is composed, can be 

 easily distinguished. The species are almost all natives 

 of intertropical countries, there being 620 species indige- 

 nous to the warmer regions of South America. None of 

 the species possess any remarkable properties. They all 

 have a slight degree of astringency. The iruit of some 

 species is edible : that of others stains the mouth black, 

 and hence the name Melastoma. 



Tribe 1. LAVOISEKEJE. 



Anthers 1-2-pored at the apex. Ovary free at 

 the apex, without scales or seta?. Capsule dry. 

 Seeds ovate or angled, not cochleate, with the 

 hilum lateral and linear. —American plants. 



1. Meriania. 



Calycine tube campanulate ; limb 5-6 lobed, 

 with the lobes dilitato-membranaceous at the 

 base, subulate at the apex. Petals 5-6. Anthers 

 obtuse at the apex opening by a double pore, fur- 

 nished with a very short spurred process at the 

 base. Ovary globose, sub-depressed at the apex, 

 glabrous, with the placentae lunated. Seeds mi- 

 nute, cuneato-angled. 



Low trees or shrubs, natives of Jamaica or South 

 America. — Name given by Swartz in honor of Maria 

 Sybilla Merian, authoress of a work on Insects. 



1. Meriania leucantha. White-Flowered Me- 

 riania. 



Branchlets tetragonal compressed glabrous, 

 leaves ovato-oblong acuminate 3-nerved serru- 

 lated, bractese 2 beneath each flower ovato-lan- 

 ceolate 5-nerved very entire. 



Swartz, Fl. Ind. Occ. 820. 



