Tetrazygia
(from tetra, four, and zugos, a yoke; alluding to the fourfold arrangement of the parts of the flower). ORD. Melastomaceae. A genus comprising about thirteen species of stove, usually furfuraceous shrubs or trees, inhabiting the West Indies. Calyx tube urceolate or globose,constricted above the ovary, the limb four or five-lobed; petals four or five, obovate, obtuse; stamens eight or ten, equal, the filaments subulate; panicles or corymbs terminal, many-flowered. Leaves petiolate, oblong, ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, entire or denticulated, three to five-nerved. The species here described are well worth cultivating. They require similar treatment to that recommended for Melastoma.
T. angustiflora (narrow-flowered). fl. white, large, but with a narrow calyx; petals five, rarely four, four to five lines long; panicles racemiform, oblong, the primary branches terminated by corymbiform cymes. May. l. elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, abruptly acuminate, 3in. to 5in. long, entire, whitish-downy beneath. Branchlets (and inflorescence) powdery-downy. h. 20ft. 1823. Tree (B. M. 4383, under name of T. elaeagnoides.) T. discolor (two-coloured). fl. white, small, densely crowded in a corymbiform panicle; petals oval. May. l. ovate or ovate-lanceolate, entire, sharp-pointed, 3in. to 5in. long, white beneath with adpressed, scaly down. h. 3ft. 1793. A low shrub.
T. elaeagnoides (Oleaster-like). fl. pink or white, disposed in a corymbiform, or sometimes racemiform, panicle; petals four, three to four lines long. June. l. elliptic-lanceolate or lanceolate, sharply acuminate, narrower than those of T. angustiflora, whitened beneath by tomentose down. h. 2ft. or more. 1848. Shrub.