328 



Descriptions of Malayan Plants, 



This is a large shrub with irregularly four-sided branches. 

 Leaves opposite, short-petioled, very large, elliptic-ovate, 

 acute at both ends, with a short acumen at the point, entire, 

 very smooth, thick and leathery^ quintuple-nerved, fifteen 

 or sixteen inches long. A dense circle of brown-coloured 

 bristles surrounds the joints of the stem within the axils. 

 Panicles terminal, large, red, the subdivisions quaternate ; 

 bracts similarly quaternate and verticillate, ovate. Flowers 

 pale flesh-coloured. Calyx oblong ; limb obsoletely four- 

 toothed. Petals four. Stamina eight, nearly equal ; anthers 

 similar and equal, purple, furnished with two short yellow 

 appendages at the base. Ovary connected with the calyx 

 by eight septa. Style simple. Berries reddish-purple, four- 

 celled, many-seeded. 



Obs. — This is a very remarkable and splendid species, 

 with uncommonly large deep-green leaves, and highly colour- 

 ed panicles. 



16. MELASTOMA RUBICUNDA. (W. J.) 



M. octandra, floribus axillaribus dichotome cymosis ru- 

 bescenti-pellucidis, calycis margine integro, foliis oblongo- 

 ovatis triplinerviis glaberrimis. 



Native of the forests of Singapore. 



A shrub with long branches and cinereous warted bark 

 Leaves opposite, short-petioled, oblong, ovate, acuminate 

 obtuse at the base, triple-nerved, very entire, very smooth 

 pale green and punctate beneath. Petioles short, thick 

 Cymes somewhat paniculate, axillary, dichotomous, divari 

 cate ; peduncles and pedicels smooth and red. Calyx semi 

 inferior, sub-globose, somewhat pellucid, and of a delicat 

 red, fleshy, smooth, attached to the ovary by eight partitions 

 margin entire and incumbent. Corolla white, almost diapha 

 nous, four-petalled ; petals oblong, reflexed. Stamina eight 

 erect. Anthers long, curved, beaked, bituberculate at th 

 base, red, before expansion having their points lodged i 



