than the petioles, round, densely ferrugineo - pubescent. 
Flowers very small, scentless. Buds globose, ferrugineo» 
pubescent. Calyx of five, or often six, rarely four, rounded, 
imbricated sepals ; the two or three outer ones densely fer- 
rugineo-pubescent. Corolla subcampanulate, pale green- 
ish or yellowish white, clothed outside with shining close- 
pressed hairs of the same colour ; tube longer than the 
calyx ; the limb in five or often six, rarely four, shallow, 
ovate, obtuse, patent, subrevolute lobes. Stamens as many 
as the sepals, very short, opposite the lobes, inserted at their 
base in the throat of the tube. Filaments shorter than the 
lobes, flattened, thick. Ovariwm ovate, ferrugineo-pubes- 
cent. Style very short and thick, smooth and greenish, 
round. Stigma of as many lobes as there are stamens or 
sepals, Fruit a shining, purplish-black, ovato-oblon 
drupe, about an inch long and half an inch broad, narrowed, 
and almost pointed at the top, but otherwise much resem- 
bling a Date in figure ; tipped with the dry remains of the 
short style, and cupped at the base by the persistent calyx. 
The surface is thinly sprinkled with short adpressed hairs, 
but is glossy and shining. It abounds in a viscid milk. 
The outer skin (Epzcarp ) is quite thin and membranaceous: 
the flesh (Sarcocarp) is scarcely above a line thick, dark 
purplish-black, full of milk. Seed always single, large, 
bony, enveloped with a very thin and membranous, closely 
adhering, but easily stripped off skin ; about three-fourths 
of an inch long, and three to four lines broad, hard, bony 
or shelly, elliptic, pointed at each end, but particularly at 
the base, smooth, glossy, dark brown, divided by longitu- 
dinal grooves into generally five, but sometimes six unequal 
compartments like pannels ; and with a large, rough, ob- 
lique, uneven, whitish scar at the base, nearly half the 
length of the whole seed. One of the compartments is both 
broader and longer than the others ; reaching the whole 
length of the seed : the other four or five are terminated by 
the scar. Testa brittle. Episperm a dry, silvery, 0 
skin, lining the testa, and scarcely attached, except about 
the radicle, to the kernel. Albwmen fleshy, enclosing all 
round the two fleshy cotyledons and inferior radicle, forming 
more than half the whole mass of the kernel, which is alto- 
gether intensely bitter, almost acrid, and abounding in oil. 
Fig. 1. Flower, open, and fig. 2, Pistil, magnified. 3. Ripe Fruit. 4. 
Seed, inverted, natural size. : 
