MELASTOMACE.*:. 
pored. Ovary ovato-oblong, crowned with a 
thick glabrous callous disk. Stigma peltate or 
capitate. Capsule dry, indehiscent, 5-celled : 
seeds ovate. 
Name from <WXoo£ double, and ^imjv a coat of mail, or 
covering ; in allusion to the pair of biacteoles wrapped 
around the young flower. 
1. Diplochita Swartziana. Swartz's Diplo - 
chit a. 
Branches subterete, as also the petioles pedun- 
cles and under surface of the leaves furnished 
with a minute stellated incano-rufescent pube- 
scence, leaves oblongo-elliptic acuminate 5-nerved 
entire, thyrse strict, bractece deciduous, calyx 
externally stellato-pruinose, petals 5-0, stamens 
10 - 11 . 
Grossularise fructu arbor maxima non spinoso, fructu 
majori. Sloane. JI. 84. — Melastoma Tamonea, Swartz, Id. 
hid. Occ. 783 — M. Swartziana, Richard in Bonpl. Mel. t. 
33. — Diplochita Swartziana, DC. Prod. 111. I 1 ) 7. 
II A B. Port Royal and St. Andrew’s Mountains. 
FL. January, February. 
A tree-like shrub, 15-20 feet in height : branches spread- 
ing. Leaves attenuato-acuminate, 5-nerved besides a mar- 
ginal pair, dark green and glabrous above, rufescent and 
stcllato-pubescent and farinose beneath, 3-4 inches long: 
petiole rather long. Thyrse a foot in length. Flowers 
showy, pedicelled, in threes. Bractese 2, so large as to 
cover up the flower previous to opening, broad-oval, 
longitudinally nerved, pruinose with a minute stellated 
pubescence, deciduous. There are also minute ovate 
deciduous bracteac in pairs at the division info the three 
pedicels. Calyx urceolate, externally stellato-pruinose: 
limb 5-6-dentate with the teeth blunt: throat with a circle 
of 10-12-14 tubs of silky pubescence, marking the inter- 
stices between the points of insertion of the filaments. 
Petals 5-6. oblong, white, delicately veined with crimson. 
Vol. 2. 
# 
£ 
