312 



Descriptions of Malayan Plants. 



MEMECYLON PANIC ULATUM. (W.J, J 

 Foliis petiolatis ovatis obtuso-acuminatis, paniculis axil- 

 laribus brachiatis. 



Found at Tappanuly and on Pulo Bintang, or on the West 

 coast of Sumatra. 



A large shrub, with grey bark and smooth branches. 

 Leaves opposite, short-petioled, ovate or oblong ovate, ter- 

 minating in a rather obtuse acumen, entire, very smooth, 

 shining above, paler beneath, with pretty distinct nerves 

 which unite into a line near the margin ; seven or eight 

 inches long. Petioles short and thick. Stipules none. Pani- 

 cles axillary, sometimes from the axils of fallen leaves, op- 

 positely branched ; peduncles four-sided, purplish ; there is 

 generally a single one-flowered pedicel placed immediately 

 below each of the principal divisions of the panicle, spring- 

 ing as it were from the same point. Flowers numerous, bluish. 

 Bracts minute. Calyx nearly entire. Corolla light blue^ 

 four-petalled, petals broad, acute. Stamina eight ; filaments 

 subulate ; anthers blue, prolonged behind into a thick spur, 

 the upper surface of which is marked with a nectariferous 

 cavity ; cells on the anterior surface perpendicular to the 

 spur which is nearly horizontal, bursting longitudinal- 

 ly. Ovary one-celled, containing about eight erect ovula 

 attached to a small protuberance in the base of the cell ; its 

 disk marked with radii corresponding to the faces of the 

 anthers which are incurved before expansion. Style subu- 

 late. Stigma acute. Berry globular, one-seeded. Seed 

 erect, exalbuminous. Cotyledons peltate, hemispherical, their 

 flat surfaces a little irregular or waved. Radicle erect, rising 

 perpendicularly between the cotyledons to their centre where 

 it is inserted. 



Obs. — This peculiar structure of the embryo is different 

 from what obtains in all the other species of Memecylon that 

 I have examined, where the cotyledons in place of being 

 solid and hemispherical, are foliaceous and contortuplicate. 



