pdf 25 MB - BSBI Archive

OF THE GENUS FREMONTIA. 297
of such typical Melastomata as M. decemjidum, Eoxb., and M. Malaba-
thricum, L., and of wliicli a very good representation has been given
by Wight ;* the five longer ones have purple anthers and a connective
longer than themselves, also purple ; the base bicalcarate, and, as well
as the filament, yellow ; in the five shorter ones, the tips of the exap-
pendiculate anthers reach as high only as the spurs of the longer ones,
the locelli are transversely rugulose, and with the filaments are entirely
vellow. With respect to the fruit, so far from being a dry capsule, it
is a pleasantly- tasted, black, thoroughly succulent berry, when ripe,
whilst the fruit of none of the other Chinese species ever become so
at all, or are indeed more than fleshy in texture whilst ripening, and
eventually quite dry, and would be more correctly described as " cap-
suite primum carnosulce, demum exsuccse." Tlie calyx-tube has
simple sparse bristles, the lower portion formed of green cylinch'icnl
prolongations of the cellular tissue, on which are seated red bulb-like
simple hairs. The laciriise, too, though ciliate, are destitute of those
penicilliform tufts characteristic of most Osbeckiae. Naudin (loc. cit.)
observes of the Chinese plant, " A cseteris Mdastomatihus habitu dis-
crepat, indole autem floris illis maxime congruit." The latter part of
this sentence is strictly correct ; with regard to the former, the plant
is sui generis, diftering quite as much from the upright twiggy Osbeckite
as it does from the shrubby 3Ielastomata, but it looks more like a
dwarf member of the latter genus, from its broad leaves and the
thicker texture of the petals. As Dr. Hooker places Osbeckia in a di-
vision of the tribe characterized by " antherse sequales, connectivo vix
aut non producto, iaappendiculato," and assigns to the genus a " cap-
sula," whilst he locates Melastoma in one distinguished by "antheraj
insequales, longiorum connectivo basi longe producto," and attributes
to it a " bacca," it is manifest that the plant under consifleration must
be placed in the latter genus, and it is possible that Dr. Hooker, when
writing as he did, overlooked the composite nature of Blume's unten-
able genus.
ON THE GENUS FEEMONTIA.
There are certain plants which have an unfortunate history. Na-
poleona is one of these ; no two botanists have described it in pre-
* Illust. Ind. Bot. i. t. 95.
VOL. VII. [OCTOBKR 1, 1869.] Y