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CALVC1FLOR.E. 
from the base to the apex. Flowers terminal, usually 
thyrsoid. By these characters and the long beaked an- 
thers, the Melastomaceaj are readily recognized, and the 
different genera, of which the family is composed, can be 
easily distinguished. The species are almost all natives 
of intertropical countries, there being 620 species indige- 
nous to the warmer regions of South America.. None of 
the species possess any remarkable properties. They all 
have a slight degree of astringency. The fruit of some 
species is edible : that of others stains the mouth black, 
and hence the name Melastoma. 
Tribe 1 . LA VOISEREAS. 
Anthers 1-2-pored at the apex. Ovarv free at 
the apex, without scales or setae. Capsule dry. 
Seeds ovate or angled, not cochleate, with the 
hilum lateral and linear. -American plants. 
1. Meriania. 
Calyciiie tube campanulate, limb 5-G lobed, 
with the lobes dilitato-membranaceous at the 
base, subulate at the apex. Petals 5-6. Anthers 
obtuse at the apex opening by a double pore, fur- 
nished with a very short spurred process at the 
base. Ovary globose, sub-depressed at the apex, 
glabrous, with the placentae lunated. Seeds mi- 
nute, cuneato-angled. 
Low trees or shrubs, natives of Jamaica or South 
America. — Name given by Swartz in honor of Maria 
Sybilla Merian, authoress of a work on Insects. 
1. Meriania leucantha. White-Flowered Me- 
riania. 
Branchlets tetragonal compressed glabrous, 
leaves ovato-oblong acuminate 3-nerved serru- 
lated, bracteae 2 beneath each flower ovato-lan- 
ceolate 5-nerved very entire. 
Swartz , FI. Ind. Occ. 82G. 
