668 
Lll. MELASTOMACE^. 
ovary and calyx, the connective often variously extended or thickened. Ovary 
enclosed in the calyx-tube and adnate to it, or more or less free, with 2 to 6 or 
rarely more cells, with the placenta in the axis, or rarely 1 -celled by the abortion 
of the partitions. Style simple, with a minute or capitate or peltate stigma. 
Ovules several, rarely 2 only to each placenta, anatropous. Fruit enclosed in the 
calyx or combined with it, either succulent and indehiscent, or bursting irregularly, 
or capsular and opening in as many valves as there are cells. Seeds usually 
numerous and small, straight or cochleate (i.e. curved somewhat like an univalve 
shell), without albumen ; testa coriaceous, crustaceous or membranous. Embryo 
straight or curved ; cotyledons plano-convex or thick and variously folded ; 
radicle short. — Herbs, shrubs or rarely trees. Leaves opposite, simple, petiolate, 
8 to 11-nerved, or in Memecylece 1-nerved and penniveined, entire or rarely serru- 
late. Stipules none. Flowers usually in terminal panicles or clusters, rarely 
axillary or solitary. 
A large Order, chiefly American, and most abundant within the tropics, a considerable number 
also in tropical and subtropical Asia, especially in the Eastern Archipelago, and a few in tropical 
and southern Africa. The 5 Australian genera are all Asiatic and 4 of them also African. — 
Benth. 
Thebe I. Osbeckieac. — Leuven with 3, 5 or more ribs. Anthers opening in a single terminal 
pore. Ovary more or less adherent , except the convex or conical summit. 2 to 6- celled . Fruit 
capsular or rarely pulpy. Seeds cochleate. 
Anthers all similar and equal or nearly so. Fruit capsular, opening in valves. 
Calyx-lobes 4, rarely 5, with bristle-like appendages between them. Anthers 
without any or scarcely any appendage at the base 1. Osbeckia. 
Calyx-lobes 5 or 6, without appendages between them. Anthers with a short 
2-lobed inflected appendage at the base 2. Otanthera. 
Anthers alternately smaller or dissimilar. Fruit succulent or pulpy, bursting 
irregularly 3. Melastoma. 
Tribe II. IVKedinille^e. —Ovary almost or wholly adnate to the calyx-tube. Fruit a berry , 
rarely a capsule, crowned by the calyx-limb, or areolate ; crown convex, glabrous or bristly. Seeds 
usually obovoid or pyramidal, never cochleate. 
Anthers 8, 10, 12, subequal ; connective not lengthened below 4. Medinilla 
Tribe III. IVIemecyleac . — Leaves with the midrib prominent, the veins pinnate or incon- 
spicuous. Anther-cells adnate to a much-tliickened connective, and opening in separate slits or 
pores. Ovary adnate, 1-cellcd, with a central placenta. Fruit a berry . ... 5. Memecylon. 
1. OSBECKI A, Linn. 
(After P. Osbeck.) 
Calyx-tube ovoid, globular or urceolate ; lobes or teeth 4 or 5, deciduous, with 
appendages between them, which are usually bristle-like, terminating in a tuft of 
hairs. Petals obovate. Stamens twice as many as petals, all equal and similar 
or nearly so ; anthers opening in a single pore at the summit, and without any 
or scarcely any appendage at the base of the connective. Ovary 4 or 5-celled, 
crowned with bristles. Fruiting-calyx usually truncate after the fall of the lobes ; 
capsule opening at the top in as many valves as there were cells to the ovary. 
Seeds cochleate.— Herbs, undershrubs, or rarely shrubs. Leaves sessile or petio- 
late, 3, 5, or 7-nerved. Flowers usually terminal, in clusters or short racemes, 
often forming leafy panicles, rarely solitary. Calyx-tube often more or less covered 
with bristles or ciliate scales. 
The genus comprises a few African species, besides a considerable number from tropical Asia 
and the Archipelago, including the Queensland one. 
1. O. Chinensis (of China), Linn. Spec. PI. 490 ( not Bot. Reg. nor Bot. 
Mag.) ; Benth. FI. Austr. iii. 291. A herb undershrub or shrub, from 14 to 8ft. 
high, glabrous or with a few short stiff hairs. Leaves very shortly petiolate, 
linear linear-oblong or almost lanceolate, 1 to 2in. long. Flowers several 
