Descriptions of Malayan Plants, 317 



inch long, pilose. Flowers terminal, somewhat corymbose, 

 pedicellate, generally from five to seven, large. Bracts small. 

 Calyx ovate, beset with strong erect bristly hairs; limb 

 divided into five long, linear, acute, deciduous segments. 

 Corolla purplish-red, five-petalled ; petals large, spreading. 

 Stamina ten ; anthers arcuate, beaked, the alternate ones 

 pedicellate. Style declinate. Berry pilose, ovate, five-celled, 

 many-seeded. 



4. MELASTOMA DECEMFIDA. Roxb, 



M. decandra, floribus subsolitariis terminalibus, foliis 

 quinquenerviis, calyce decemfido setis mollibus porrectis 

 echinato. 



Roxb, Cat, Hort. Beng, p. 90. 



Native of Pulo Penang. 



A large shrub. Branches round, beset with scattered stri- 

 gose scales. Leaves opposite, petiolate, ovate-lanceolate, 

 acute and attenuated to the point, nearly entire, sometimes 

 spinulose on the margin, five-nerved, with some scattered 

 appressed hairs on both surfaces. Petioles^ as well as the 

 nerves of the under surface, covered with appressed strigae, 

 channelled above, and ciliate with long hairs along the 

 margins. Flowers very large, nearly solitary, terminal, short- 

 peduncled. Calyx ovate, densely covered, as well as the 

 peduncle, with long erect soft spine-hke bristles, ten cleft: 

 lacinicc long, subulate, the alternate ones shorter. Petals 

 five, large, red, spreading. Stamina ten, arcuate, rostrate ; 

 five, larger, with pedicellate anthers, appendiculate at the 

 base. They are lodged in the cells between the calyx and 

 ovary before expansion, as in other species. Style filiform. 

 Fruit five-celled, many-seeded. 



Obs. — This species has considerable resemblance to M, 

 Malabathrica, but has larger finer flowers. 



