37 
OSBECKIA STELLATA. 
Woolly-fruited Osbeckia. 
OCTANDHIA MONOGYNI A—Nat. Ord. MELASTOMACEM, Br. 
Osbeckia stellata ; foliis oblongo-lanceolatis, calycis tubo pilis numero- 
sissimis fasciculatis densissime intertextis obsito. 
Osbeckia stellata, Hamilton, in Herb. Lamb, (according to Mr Don). — Don, 
in Bot. Reg. t. 674. 
Osbeckia crinita. Smith, MSS. 
Stem, a foot or a foot and a half high, erect, branched, quadrangular, reddish- 
green, covered with scattered appressed hairs. Leaves opposite, oblongo- 
lanceolate, rigid, entire, clothed on all sides with numerous, short, ap- 
pressed hairs, ciliated at the margins, five-nerved, with the nerves inter- 
sected with parallel oblique veins, deep green above, paler beneath, where 
the nerves are prominent. 
Flowers large, two inches across, piu:ple-rose colour, very handsome, in ter- 
minal (and axillary ?) corymbs. Peduncles short, with one or two ovate, 
ciliated, deciduous bracteas at their base and at their extremity. Cali/x 
covered, all over, with thickly crowded interwoven hairs, or soft bristles, 
which, when carefully examined, are found to proceed, in tufts, from 
small excrescences or tubercles on the surface of the calyx, their colour 
is white ; tube ovate, large ; limb of 4 linear equal segments, and 4 small- 
er ones or scales, alternating with them. Corolla of 4 roundish, slightly 
unguiculated, spreading petals, nerved, ciliated at the margin. Stamens 8, 
subulate, united at the base of the petals. Filaments yell ow. Anther 
deep yellow, very long, curved nearly in the shape of the letter S, fur- 
rowed on the top, opening by a single pore at the extremity. Pistil: 
germen sunk within the tube of the calyx, with its lower part only incor- 
porated with it, ovate, attenuated, but truncate at the top, hairy. Sli/le 
about as long as the stamens, pale yellow, filifoi-m, curved at the sum- 
mit ; Stigma obtuse. 
This species of Osbeckia I had occasion to iiieiitioii as a 
native of Nepaul, in the last Part of my Exotic Flora, little 
thinking that I should so soon have the satisfaction of publish- 
ing it as an inhabitant of our gardens. The Messrs Shep- 
VOL. I. 
