Medinilla] 



LII. MELASTOMACEiE 



OtjO 



eliiptiCj 8-nerved, often a second pair higher up, blade 3-6 in., petiole short. 1*1. pink, 

 anthers dark blue, fr. ovoid, red or black when ripe, edible. 2. M. Beddlomei, C. B. Clarke 

 {M. radicam, Bedd. Ic. t. 184). Evergreen forests of the Western Ghats from Coorg 

 southwards. A fleshy epiphyte, 1. thick-fleshy, obtuse, nearly orbicular, IJ in. M. 

 1| in, long, solitary, on axillary peduncles, petals 4, pure white, spathulate. 3. M. 

 malabarica, Bedd. Ic. t. 157. Nilgiris, w^estern slojpes. Anamalais. Epiphytic, 1. very 

 fleshy, elliptic, prominently 3- occasionally 5-nerved. Peduncles axillary, sometimes 

 several together, 3-5-fld, EL, peduncles and pedicels of a brilliant crinason. 



B. Fl. in terminal cymes. 



4. M. Mmalayana, Hook f. Sikkim 2,500-6,000 ft. Khasi hills. L. nearly sessile, 

 broadly elliptic, ramifications of cymes slender, pedicels divaricate in fruit. El. J in. 

 across, rose coloured. 5. M. paucijaora, Hook. f. Darjiling. Branch lets obtusely quad- 

 rangular, 1. sessile, cymes few-fld. 



Blastus cochinchirLensis, Lour. Assam (Nambar Forest, March 1879 D.B.). China, 

 Tonkin, Cochin China, Eormosa. A shrub, young shoots and young 1. clothed with 

 round resinous scales, 1. elliptic-lanceolate, blade 3-6, petiole i-l in. long, 3 basal nerves 

 joined by distant sec. n. El. small, tetramerous, white, on minutely tubereled pedicels 

 m sessile umbels sometimes axillary, more often from the axils of fallen leaves, stamens 

 4, equal. Capsule tightly enclosed by the calyx, loculicidally 4--valved. Seeds minute, 

 numerous, on a central 4-winged placentiferous axis, at both ends long acuminate, 

 falcate. 



5. MEMECYLON, Linn. ; El. Brit. Ind. ii. 553. 



Evergreen glabrous shrubs or trees. L. coriaceous, penninervedj sec. n, 

 often obscure, rarely apparently 3-nerved. EL blue or white, tetramerous, in 

 lateral compound, often umbelliform cymes, or sessile in compact fascicles^ 

 Eree portion of calyx produced far beyond and generally much wider than the 

 ovary. Stamens 8, equal, anthers small opening by slits, connective generally 

 large, fleshy, prolonged consider- 

 ably below the anthers. Ovary 

 inferior 1-celled, apex glabrous, 

 surmounted by a disk, frequently 

 with 8 radiating grooves, style 

 long, filiform. Er. more or less 

 fleshy, surmounted by the calyx- 

 limb, 1-, rarely 2-seededj cotyle- 

 dons convolute. Species about 

 130, most in India, the Malay 

 Peninsula and Archipelago, sev- 

 eral in tropical Africa, a few in 

 Polynesia and Australia. 



A. Leaves petiolate, acute at 

 both ends, elliptic or elliptic- 

 lanceolate, fl. pedicelled, in pe- 

 dunculate cymes. 



1. M. edule, Roxb. Cor. PL 



t. 82 (1795).— Syn. Jl iimhella- 

 tim, Burm. f . EL Ind. 87 (1768) 

 (which may have to take preced- 

 ence of the well-known name M. 

 edule); M, tiyictorium, Koenig; 

 Wight 111. t. 93; If. rami- 

 florum^ Lam. Vern. Mrasn, 

 *Uriya; Ajijtcn, Anjani^ Kurpa^ 

 Mar.; Udatalli, Kan.; AUi, 

 TeL; Kassmij Kay an ^ Tarn. Eia, 141.— Memecylon edule, Boxb. fr. fl. J. 



