846 MELASTOMACE^. [Osbeckia. 



the base. Ovary usually 4-5-celled ; style simple, usually filiform ; 

 o?;«^e5 many. i^>«i?'i; a capsule or berry, included in the calyx-tube. 

 S)eeds minute, usually many ; albumen 0. — Species about 2,700,- 

 mostly in tropical fe. America and in S. E. Asia. 



Ovary 4-5-celled, seeds curved . • 1. Osbeckia. 

 Ovary 3'celled, seeds straight • . 2. Sonebilla. 



1. OSBECKIA, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. ii, 513. 



Herbs or shrubs, mostly erect and setose ; branches commonly 

 4-gonous. Leaves opposite or sometimes ternate, entire, subcoriaceous 

 3-7 -nerved. Flowers terminal, solitary capitate or panicled, purple 

 mauve or ^vhite, often bracteate. Calyx-tube ovoid, carrying stellate 

 hairs or pectinate scales ; limb 5- or 4-fid, usually stellately hairy. 

 I'etals 5-4. Stamens 10 or 8, equal or subequal ; anthers oblong, 

 truncate attenuate or beaked ; connective not produced at base, 

 slightly swollen or with 2 tubercles, Ovary inferior, 4-5-celled, more' 

 or less adherent to calyx, setose at apex ; style long, simple ; ovules 

 very numerous, on placentas radiating from the axis. Caiosule opening 

 at the apex by 4-5 pores. Seeds many, curved through half a circle, 

 covered with minute elevated points. — Species about 5u, mostly Indian,, 

 one of which extends to China and N. Australia. 



O. chinensis, Linn. Sp. PI. 345 ; Boxb. Fl. Ind. ii, 224 ; F. B. I. ii, 515- 

 O. angustifolia, Don ; Royle III. 215. 



An annual up to 2 ft. high. Branches 4-gonous, appressedly hairy. 

 Leaves variable, 2-6 in. long, broadly oblong or linear, 3-5-nerved, 

 hairy on hoth sides, shortly petioled. Floivers capitate, rather small ; 

 bracts ovate, glahrons or with a few scattered hairs on the hack. Calyx 

 campanulate, usually prodticed into a short neck when in fruit, some- 

 times with appressed pectinate scales ; teeth lanceolate, glabrous, not 

 keeled on the back, margins ciliate. Petals i in.,' mauve. Anthers 

 with a beak about half their length. Fruit \ in. or more. 



Dehra Dun (Gamble), in damp places, Distkib, Outer Himalaya from 

 Garhwal to Bhutan, Bengal, Assam and Khasia Hills ; also in China, 

 Japan and N. Australia. Elowers in Sept. and Oct. 



2. SONERILIiA, Eoxb. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. ii, 529. 



Herbs, sometimes woody at the base, nearly always small , and often 

 stemless. Leaves opposite, equal or unequal, from round to linear^ 

 entire or serrulate, b-5-nerved. Flowers in racemes or scorpioid spikes, 

 mostly red. Calyx-tube campanulate or funnel-shaped ; teeth 3, 



