Descriptions of Malayan Plants.* 



315 



opposite, petiolate, ovate or elliptic-ovate, five-nerved, pilose, 

 the hairs on the upper surface shorter than those on the 

 lower ; these hairs are appressed, and lie in different direc- 

 tions according to the course of the nerves, like the grained 

 fur of animals. The two opposite leaves are often unequal 

 in size. Petioles scaly. Flowers terminal, three, rarely five, 

 on very short pedicels, each embraced by two large broad- 

 ovate bracts, which completely invest the calyx. These 

 bracts are covered externally with appressed scales, but are 

 smooth towards the margins ; they do not fall oiF till after in- 

 florescence. Calyx ovate, covered with long appressed 

 glossy scales ; limb divided into five ovate mucronate, obli- 

 quely rotate, deciduous segments, which are membranaceous 

 at the edges. Corolla large, purple, five- petalled. Stamina 

 ten ; anthers arcuate, beaked, the alternate five pedicellate, 

 with two processes at the base. Ovary connected by ten 

 partitions with the calyx. Style declinate. Berry five-celled, 

 many-seeded. 



Obs, — The flat bristles or scales of the calyx are remark- 

 ably long in this species ; its limb, after the fall of the 

 segments, is acutely five-angled, and the scales that rise from 

 these angles are so long as almost to appear like lesser laci- 

 niae alternating with the true ones. 



2. MELASTOMA MALABATHRICA. Linn. 

 Tab. I. Fig. ]. a~g, 



M. decandra, foliis elliptico-lanceolatis quinquenerviis scab- 

 ris pilis brevibus appressis, floribus 7—11 opposite corym- 

 bosis, bracteis ovatis deciduis calyce minoribus, calycibus 

 squamosis laciniis deciduis. 



Kadah. Rheed Malab. iv. p, 87. t. ¥2. 



Fragarius niger. Rumph, Amb, iv. p. 187. t. 72. 



Sikadudu. Malay. 



Abundant throughout Sumatra and the Malay islands, and 

 chiefly occupying open waste lands or coppices. 



