MELASTOMA SANGUINEA. 
(Bloody -veined Melastoma.) 
Class. Order. 
DECANDRIA. ' ‘ MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
MELASTOMACEiE. 
Generic Character.— C aZyd? with an ovate tube 
adhering to the ovarium, densely covered with scales 
or bristles ; limb five, rarely six-cleft ; the segments 
alternating with the appendages, both deciduous. 
Petals five or six. Stamens twice the number of the 
petals. Anthers oblong-linear, a little arched, open- 
ing by a pore at the apex, each furnished with a stipe- 
formed connective, which is in some species elongated, 
and in others short, but always»-bi-auriculate or emar- 
ginate in front. Ovarium free, part conical and bristly. 
Style filiform, somewhat thickened at the apex. Stigma 
a pruinose dot. Capsule baccate, five or six-celled, 
opening irregularly. Seeds cochleate. — Don’s Card, and 
Botany. 
Specific Character. — Plant an evergreen shrub. 
Branches terete, very rough from red bristles. Leave,9 
on short petioles, ovate-lanceolate, acuminated, five- 
nerved, green above and shining, but red at the nerves 
beneath, and on the petiole. Pedicels bi-bracteate. 
Floivers few, large, rose-coloured, terminal. Calyx 
covered with very long incurved bristles. Petals six, 
large. Fruit bracteate. 
This beautiful slirub, so seldom seen in our stoves, altboiigh it has been twenty 
years in the country, is a native of the Simda Islands, where it grows to a large 
bush five or six feet high. 
In cultivation it seldom reaches a greater altitude than three feet, unless 
planted out in a border. The branches are well clothed with leaves, and termi- 
nate in a cluster of very large delicately-soft pink or rose-coloured fiowers, the 
ephemeral character and successive expansion of which, however, prevent them 
from appearing at any one time in excessive quantity ; and it is, therefore, rather 
a plant which presents a moderately attractive aspect for a considerable period, 
than a gorgeous blaze of beauty lasting only for a few days. 
A tendency to grow perfectly upright is commonly displayed not only by this 
species, but by most of its congeners, and in order to obtain bushy specimens it is 
consequently necessary to tie down the outmost shoots, and shorten back the 
inner ones, that laterals may be formed to fill up the middle of the bush. Pruning, 
indeed, is absolutely necessary, every year, to prevent a loose difi’usive growth, 
and to secure vigour and the free development of blossoms. 
In the general characters of the plant there is a striking affinity wfith M. ma- 
crocarpum. It is, however, easily known from that species by the blood-coloured 
petioles and nerves of the leaf, and the crimson bristles which clothe tlie stem. 
These features, whilst they thus serve to distinguish it, and have been selected as 
the foundation of the specific title, impart an additional interest to its appearance. 
VOL. XII. NO. CXLIV. 
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