Descriptions of Malayan Plants. 311 



entire, margin reflexed, coriaceous, very smooth, deep green 

 and shining above, lateral nerves inconspicuous uniting at 

 their extremities into a line which runs parallel to the margin. 

 Stipules none. Peduncles axillary, solitary^ short, few flower- 

 ed ; pedicels short and thick, opposite, somewhat verticillate, 

 divaricate^ forming a kind of corymbiform head. Flowers 

 blue. Bracts opposite, short, acute. Calyx superior, colored, 

 smooth, nearly entire, becoming by age more distinctly four- 

 toothed. Corolla deep blue, four-petalled, spreading, petals 

 broad, ovate, acute. Stamina eight, erect, shorter than the 

 corolla. Filaments short. Anthers blue, attached by their 

 middle, horizontal, shaped somewhat like the head of an axe, 

 with a knob behind ; cells parallel on the anterior edge. 

 Before expansion, the anthers are bent downwards, (somewhat 

 in the manner of the Melastomse,) and the surface of the 

 germen and bottom of the calyx are marked with their 

 impressions, of which the four inner are the deepest ; the 

 ridges between them form 8 sharp prominent rays, and there 

 are 8 other less conspicuous lines formed by the faces of the 

 bilocular anthers. Ovarium ovate, one-celled, containing 

 from 6 to 8 erect ovula. Style filiform, a little longer than the 

 stamina. Stigma acute. Berry cortical, crowned by the per- 

 sistent calyx, ovate, a little oblique at the base, one-seeded, 

 the rudiments of the abortive ovula surrounding the umbi- 

 licus. Seed ovate, umbilicate at the base and a little oblique. 

 Albumen none. Embryo erect. Cotyledons membranaceous, 

 contortuplicate. Radicle cylindrical, nearly as long as the 

 seed, obverse to the umbilicus. 



Obs. — The different species of Memecylon have not been 

 well defined by authors ; this appears to differ from M, 

 cordatum, Lamarck, and M. grande, Retz : or Nedum schetti. 

 Rheed. Mai: II, p. 21. if. 15, in having ovate not globose 

 fruit, and in the flowers not being umbelled. In the latter 

 the flowers are small, yellow and numerous, in this they are 

 larger, blue, and much fewer in number. 



