country, and also in Ceylon, they are very abundant, and many of them most magnificent and
showy plants. . .
The species are either trees, shrubs, or herbaceous plants, with opposite, exstipulate, entire
leaves ; usually without pellucid dots and marked by three or more thick longitudinal nerves or
ribs. The flowers are usually hi-sexual, regular, often panicled, rarely solitary, the panicles or
cymes usually contracted. The most remarkable peculiarity of this order is the position of the
stamens in æstivation. The filaments are inserted near the orifice of the calyx, and the anthers
are bent down into its tube, occupying the vacant space between it and the ovary, after the
expansion of the flower they ascend. A somewhat similar arrangement is observable in Meme-
cyleae with this difference, that the ovary is there altogether inferior and the anthers fill the
cup of the calyx. The relative position of the ovary in the two orders generally affords a good
discriminating mark between them, but is not always to be depended on as some Melastomaceae
resemble Memecylon in this, respect.
“ Calyx with 3-5 teeth or divisions, which are more or less deep, or are sometimes united
and separated from the tube like a lid. Petals equal to a segment of the calyx, perigynous,
twisted in æstivation.. Stamens either equal in number to the petals and alternate with them,
or usually twice as many, the alternate ones of a different shape and perhaps never with fertile
pollen : filaments in æstivation, bent downwards towards the bottom of the calyx : anthers longt
2-celled, bursting usually by one or two terminal pores, rarely longitudinally. Ovarium with-
several cells, rarely completely combined with the tube of the calyx, very rarely entirely free
from it, usually cohering with it more or less by means of 3-10 longitudinal nerves, thus forming
as many cases as the anthers which they contain during æstivation : ovules indefinite : style 1 :
stigma simple, entire, capitateor reduced to a mere point. Placentae in the axis. Fruit plun-
locular : either free and then capsular, valvate and loculicide ; or adherent, baecate (a balausta),
and indéhiscent. Seeds numerous,-minute. Albumen none. Embryo straight or curved:
radicle pointing to the hilum: cotyledons equal or unequal.—Leaves opposite, undivided, not
dotted, 3-9-nerved.”
A f f in i t i e s . My acquaintance with this very extensive order being slight, and my means
of extending it very limited, I refrain from attempting to offer any opinion of my own on this
head, but that this article may not be, by so much, deficient I shall introduce the whole of the
valuable remarks of Dr. Lindley on their affinities for the benefit of those of my readers who
may not have an opportunity of consulting the original.
“ The family of Melastomaceae” remarks DeCandolle, in an excellent memoir upon the
subject, “ although composed entirely of exotic plants, and established at a period when but few
species were known, is so well characterized, that no one has ever thought of putting any part
of it in any other group, or even introducing into it genera that do not rightly belong to it.”
These distinct characters are, the opposite leaves, with several great veins or ribs running from
the base to the apex, something as in Monocotyledonos plants, and the long beaked anthers ;
to which peculiarities combined there is nothing to be compared in other families. Permanent,
however, as these characters undoubtedly are, yet the cause of no uncertainty having been yet
found in fixing the limits of the order, is rather to be attributed to the small number of species
that have been examined, than to the want of connecting links : thus Diplogenea has traces of
the dots of Myrtaceae, which were not known to exist in Melastomaceae until that genus was
described ; several genera are now described with a superior ovary, a structure which was at one
time supposed not to exist in the order ; and, finally, in the remarkable genus Sonerila, the
leaves are sometimes not ribbed.
The greatest affinity of Melastomaceae is on the one hand with Lythraceae, on the other
with Myrtaceae and their allies ; from the former they differ in the aestivation of their calyx
not bein» valvate, from the latter in having the petals twisted before expansion and no dots on
the leaves, and from both, and all others to which they can be compared, in their long anthers
bent down parallel to the filaments in the flower, and lying in niches between the calyx and
• 0vary ; with the exception of Memecylaceae, in which, however, the union between the calyx
and ovary is complete, and which have leaves destitute of the lateral ribs that so strongly point
out Melastomaceae. The structure of the seeds of Memecylaceae is also different.
G e o g r a p h ic a l D i s t r ib u t io n . As stated above, America may justly be considered the
head quarters of this tribe, upwards of 600 species having been obtained from that quarter
out of about 800 described by DeCandolle in his Prodromus. Since the publication of that work
many genera and species have been added, whence I believe I under estimated the number of
species now known at one thousand. Of this number probably about 100 are natives of continental
India and Ceylon; of these Roxburgh seems only to have known 14, as 7 out of 21 described
by him are from Pulo Penang and the Moluccas. Blume has added largely to the list
from Java, having probably nearly doubled the Indian list, that is, supposing that the other
genera are somewhat in proportion to Medinilla, of which that Island produces 21 species. In
Ceylon Melastomaceae are also numerous, and several new and very curious species have recently,
through the researches of Colonel Walker, been brought to light ; among these are several species
of Osbeckia, five or six of Sonerila and three or four of Medinilla. One species of this
last genus, but differing somewhat from the generic character especially in the anthers being
spurred only, not auricled and spurred, at the base, is among the handsomest plants I have ever-
seen It is an enormous creeper, adheres firmly to the trees on which it grows, climbs to the
tops of the highest trees of the forest,: and covers them with a profusion of large crimson flowers
This species I first saw in company with Colonel Walker (in a dense forest above Ram-
boddy) to whom I have dedicated this noble plant Medinilla? Walkerii. On the alpine ranges
of the southern provinces and in Malabar, I collected many specimens, several of which, I then
supposed were new species, but which, on a more careful examination and comparison with others,
must I fear be considered as varieties only, at least I have not yet been able to find satisfactory
distinctive marks by which to raise them to the rank of species. Figures of some of these
shall shortly appear in the leones. In addition to these from the south, a few species spread
northwards and even extend to the foot of the Himalayas,>it these are so few in number as
scarcely to form an exception to the general rule that this is truly a pre-eminently tropical
order.
P r o p e r t ie s a n d U s e s . Astringency is said to be the predominating quality of the order,
hut little seems yet known regarding them. Lindley remarks that the order “ though one of
the most extensive known is entirely destitute of any unwholesome species. The succulent
fruit of many is eatable that of some dyes the mouth black, whence the name Melastoma. It
may be here remarked as somewhat curious that the genus established by Burman under this
name for which he is quoted as the authority and of which he figured two species, is not that
now called Melastoma, but Osbeckia, the original name being limited to a genus, of which it
does not appear he ever saw a single plant.
R em a r k s o n G e n e r a a n d S p e c i e s . The Indian genera are few and easily distinguished,
I do not therefore think it necessary to devote much space to this division. Osbeckia has
either a quaternary or quinary order but the stamens are all alike. Melastoma, which in general
appearance it resembles is easily distinguished by the stamens, one-half having the anthers
sessile on the apex of the filament, the other having them supported on a long pedicel or stipe,
apparently formed from a prolongation downwards of the connectivum : by this mark alone
these allied genera can always be distinguished at a glance. Sonerilla is separated from both
by its ternary order of parts—Medinilla has a quaternary series, the anthers with auricles and
a spur at the base, in M. Walkerii the auricles are wanting, but the spur is considerable, on
which account I have marked the genus with a doubt. Among my collection of Mergui plants
communicated by Mr. Griffith I find a second species presenting the same peculiarity, agreeing
in that respect with Pternandra, but distinguished by the anthers of the latter opening by a
longitudinal slit not by a pore as in the other. The genus Triplectrum abounds about Cour-
tallurn but seems rarely to flower as I, in the course of several visits to that place, could not
find a single plant in flower though I walked over acres of ground covered with th e plant.
This disappointment I the more regretted, as the genus is founded on a single specimen and that
not a very good one, whence I fear it may only be a modified state of Medinilla.