Note 102 — IDEAS FOR A PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS.
Henry G. (Henry George) Bohn translation
p. 229—“Melastomaceæ.”
This group comprises the genera Melastoma (Fothergilla and Tococa Aub. and Rhexia (Meriana and Osbeckia), of which we have collected no less than sixty new species in tropical America alone, on both sides of the equator. Bonpland has published a splendid work on the Melastomaceæ, in two volumes, with coloured plates. There are species of Rhexia and Melastoma which ascend in the chain of the Andes, as Alpine or Paramos shrubs, to 9600 and even more than 11,000 feet above the level of the sea; as for instance Rhexia cernua, R. stricta, Melastoma obscurum, M. aspergillare, and M. lutescens.