Arthrostemma
(from arthron, a joint, and stemon, a stamen; in reference to the stamens or connectives being jointed). ORD. Melastomaceoe. Beautiful stove or greenhouse evergreen shrubs. Tube of calyx turbinate or campanulate, usually clothed with bristles, pili, or scales; lobes four, lanceolate, permanent, without any appendages between them; petals four. A mixture of loam, peat, and sand, suits them best; and cuttings of small firm side shoots will root, in April or August, under a hand glass in sandy soil. Only three or four out of the half-dozen species belonging to this genus have been as yet introduced.
A. fragile (brittle). fl. rosy; cymes loose, terminal, few-flowered; calyx glandular. July. l. ovate-cordate, acute, five-nerved, serrated; branches tetragonal, beset with glandular hairs. h. 3ft. Mexico, 1846. Stove species.
A nitida (glossy-leaved). fl lilac; peduncles axillary towards the top of the branches, three-flowered, longer than the petioles. June. l. ovate, acute, serrulated, glabrous on both surfaces, shining above, but glandularly hispid on the nerves beneath. Stems shrubby, erect, and are, as well as the branches, tetragonally winged, beset with coloured hairs. h. 2ft. to 3ft. Buenos Ayres, 1829. Greenhouse species.
A. versicolor (changeable-flowered). fl., petals obovate, ciliated, at first white, but at length becoming reddish, terminal, solitary. September. l. petiolate, ovate, serrulated, five-nerved, discoloured beneath. Plant shrubby; hairy. h. 1ft. Brazil (on the sea shore), 1825. Stove species.