218
ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY.
As above remarked I have found but few new species, but have seen great reason to believe
that those already described are apt to vary so considerably, as to lead to the supposition of
their being distinct when separately examined, though when numerous specimens are compared
at the same time, the differences, which in extreme forms might appear so considerable as not
to admit of union, are yet found gradually to meet through the medium of intermediate
forms. Dr. Arnott in a paper on the Ceylon Metastomacene published in the Companion to the
Botanical Magazine has defined several new ones, the abridged differential characters of which
J subjoin, though I do not feel quite certain that they are all distinct.
SONERILA.
1. S. Ceylanica; branches glabrous, anthers cordate- ovate, obtuse.
2. S. affinis; branches nearly glabrous, anthers cor- date-oblong, attenuated, slyle .filiform, stigma capitate.
3. S. glaberrima; branches and leaves glabrous, an- thers lanceolate, acuminated, style thickened in the middle, stigma minute.
4. S. hirsutula; stem herbaceous, branches hirsute, petals ovate, acuminated, anthers lanceolate-subulate.
5. S. Wightiana; stem herbaceous, branches hirsute, anthers linear-lanceolate, obtuse, stigma minute.
6. S. Hookeriana; siem somewhat woody, branches clothed with reddish short wool, anthers cordate-ovate, obtuse, stigma capitate.
7. S. robusta; stem somewhat woody, branches cover- ed with close spreading hairs, petals broadly oval, acute, anthers lanceolate-subulate.
OSBECKIA.
Am hers 8.
1. O. Ceylanica; annual, anthers subulate.
2. O. truncata ; branches hirsute, leaves one inch to one inch and a quarter long, anthers truncated.
3. O.parvifolia; branches nearly glabrous, leaves three to four lines long, anthers truncated.
Anthers 10, acuminated. Leaves crowded.
4. O. buxifolia; leaves thick and rigid, closely straited.
Leaves rather distant.
5. 0. rubicunda; leaves on rather lo^g petioles, scales of the ca'ys spreading, reddish, style chivate.
6. O. Wightiana; leaves nearly sessile, scales of the calyx adpressed, yellowish, style clavate.
7. O.virgata; leaves at length nearly glabrous on the upper side, flowers somewhat umbelled, style fili- form.
8. O.aspera; branches strigose, upper side of the leaves copiously covered with adpressed bristles, under hirsute on the nerves, and harshly pubescent between them, flowers somewhat racemose, ?tyle filiform.
9. O. Kleinii; bran dies scabrous or hispid, leaves minutely strigose on both sides, flowers shortly race- mose, style fl iform.
10. O. Walkeri; branches shortly tomentose, flowers terminal, solitary, calycine segments elongated; style filiform.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 94.
1. Sonerila brunones — natural size. 5. A seed nearly mature.
2. A dissected flower, showing the inferior ovary. 6. A cluster of capsules — natural size.
3. The ovary cut vertically, many-seeded. 7. One of them magnified.
4. Cut transversely, 3-celied, with a triangular central placentae and several rows of ovules in each cell.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 95.
1. Melastoma malabathricum — natural size.
2. A dissected flower, the tube of the calyx divided and forcibly opened to show the insertion of the petals and stamens and the free ovary.
3. Stamens, the larger one unfortunately imperfectly represented as not showing the downward elongation of the connectivum, the character by which this genus is essentially separated from Osbeckia.
4. The ovary cut vertically.
5. Cut transversely.
6. A young fruit.
7. The same cut transversely, the appearance of the interior somewhat altered by drying. The dissections having been made from dried speciu.ens.
8. A seed.
9. The same cut vertically.
10. The cotyledons and radicle removed from the testa.
