Melasma
(from melasma, blackness; the plant turns black when dried). SYNS. Gastromeria, Lyncea, Nigrina. ORD. Scrophularineae. A genus comprising three or four species of stove or greenhouse, scabrous-pubescent or hispid herbs, of which two (perhaps varieties of one) are natives of South Africa, the third is Brazilian, and the fourth Mexican. Flowers in terminal leafy racemes, which are sometimes long-interrupted at base; calyx broadly ovate-campanulate, foliaceous, five-fid at apex, the lobes valvate; corolla white or pale yellowish, five-lobed, imbricated; tube broad, sub-campanulate, shorter than the calyx or shortly exserted. Leaves opposite, sessile, entire, toothed, or slightly incised at base. Probably none of the species are in cultivation.