Melhania
(from Mount Melhan, in Arabia Felix, where the original species of this genus was discovered). SYNS. Brotera and Sprengelia. ORD. Sterculiaceae. A genus comprising about sixteen species of softly tomentose, stove or greenhouse shrubs or sub-shrubs, natives of Africa, the warmer parts of Asia, and tropical Australia. Flowers yellow, white, or reddish; petals five, rarely spreading; bracteoles often longer than the sepals; peduncles axillary, one or few-flowered. Leaves ovate or cordate, crenate-serrate. M. erythroxylon is a handsome greenhouse shrub or small tree, of which only a very few individuals now exist in its native habitat. M. melanoxylon (also from St. Helena) has, within comparatively recent years, become quite extinct in a wild state, and, probably, no longer exists even in cultivation.
M. erythroxylon (red-wooded). fl. at first pure white, changing after a day to pink, and finally to a brownish-red as they begin to fade. June. l. ovate-cordate, somewhat peltate, acuminated, crenulated, tomentose beneath. h. 15ft. St. Helena, 1772. The wood of this tree is hard and of a dull brown colour. (B. M. 1000.)