MKLAST0MACEA3. »S 



subsessile small, calycine teeth 5, petals 5 ovate 

 white, stigma capitato-depre^sed, berry minute 

 azure-blue. 



Melastoma splendens, Swartz, Fl. Ind. Occ. 798. 

 HAB Mountain woods. 

 FL. Autumn. 



XV. Blakea. 



Calyx campanulate, surrounded at the base 

 with 4-6 broad scales arranged in a cruciate or 

 triple order, with the limb persistent, membrana- 

 ceous, 6-lobed or 6-dentate. Peta.s 6. Anthers 

 large, connected in a ring, obtuse and hiant with 

 two pores at the apex, furnished at the base with 

 a short spur-like process. Capsule berried, 

 crowned with the calyx, G-celled : seeds ovato- 

 angulated. — DC. 



Named by Dr. Patrick Browne in honor of Mr. Martin 

 Blake of Antigua, a promoter of science, and a patron of 

 the Doctor's Natural Bistory of Jamaica. 



1. Blakea trinervia Three-nerved Blakea. 



Leaves oblongo-ovate 3-nerved, when adult 

 glabrous and shining, when young serrulated and 

 rufo-tomentose especially the under surface of 

 the nerves, peduncles solitary longer than the 

 petiole, scales longer than the calyx. 



Blakea foliis ellipticis, Browne, 323. t. 35. — B. trinervia 

 Swartz, Obs. 1SS. 



HAB. Mountain woods. 



F L. Throughout the year. 



A shrubby tree of irregular growth: branches support- 

 ing themselves on neighbouring shrubs or rocks : rufo- 

 tomentose at the extremity. Leaves opposite, petiolate, 

 oblongo-ovate, subacuminate, subentire (minute teeth to 

 be detected within the margin on the under surface,) very 

 glabrous above, slightly hirsute especially along the 

 nerves and minutely punctulated beneath : petiole terete, 



