4.66 EBENACER (Hiern). [ Zuclea. 
bluish, drupaceous, a little juicy, edible, sweet and slightly astrin- 
gent ; seeds solitary, marked with three depressed lines. Drege, Zwet 
Pfl. Documente, 93, 184; Alph. DC. Prodr. viii. 217; Hiern in 
Trans. Cambr. Phil. Soc. xii. 95, 289; Hiern in Oliver, Fl. Trop. 
Afr. iti. 512; Hiern, Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. i. 647. E. angustifolia, 
Benth. in Hook. Niger kl. 441. Diospyros Pseudebenus, E. Meyer 
sec. Parment. in Ann. Univ. Lyon, vi. fase. ii. 81. 
Western ReGion : Great Namaqualand; Gubub, Schinz. Little Namaqua- 
land ; by the lower part of the Orange River, below £00 ft., Drége! Atherstone, 
2! Schenck, and without precise locality, Wyley ! Whitehead ! 
It occurs also in South-west Tropical Africa, The heart-wood is extremely 
hard and black. It is known by the names of Orange River ebony, sneezewood, 
and zwartebbenhout. This valuable tree, though it does not grow very high, 
attains a diameter of from 10 to 12 inches and more; it has a very thin bark, 
and its jet-black hard and durable wood is very beautiful; Dr. Livingstone sent 
large circular specimens from the interior to the South African Museum (Pappe, 
Silva capensis, ed, ii. 26). 
7. E. linearis (Zeyh. in Linnwa xx. 192, without description) ; a 
quite glabrous and somewhat glaucous shrub, 23~3 ft. high, much 
branched ; branchlets leafy, slender; leaves alternate, opposite or 
subopposite, entire, linear, acutely or obtusely narrowed at the apex, 
more or less wedge-shaped at the subsessile or sessile base, often 
somewhat faleate, coriaceous, minutely gland-dotted, 1—23 in. long, 
5-1 in. broad; cymes racemose, 3-7-flowered; bracts linear, 
acute, small ; flowers dicecious, tetramerous, or rarely pentamerous. 
Male racemes 1—3 in. long, usually drooping; pedicels 4-5 1. 
long; calyx short, about =}, in. in diam., cleft about half-way down 
with broad lobes; corolla shortly tubular, shortly lobed, ;'5 in. long ; 
stamens usually 12-16, subglabrous; ovary rudimentary, slightly 
hairy ; styles 1 or 2. Female racemes +—,', in. long ; calyx campanu- 
late, ;';—,'5 in. long; lobes rather shorter than the tube, from a 
broad base dentiform ; corolla openly campanulate, shortly cleft, 
31; in. long; lobes spreading, oval or ovate; staminodes 0; ovary 
ellipsoidal, hairy, 4-celled ; styles 2, thick, glabrous ; fruit subglobose, 
2 in. in diam.; seed solitary, about tin. in diam. Hiern in Trans. 
Cambr. Phil. Soc. xii. 96; Parmentier in Ann. Univ. Lyon, vi. fase. 
ii. 77. 
Sourn Arrica: without locality, Masson ! 
Coast Reeion: Vanrhynsdorp Div.; Windhoek, Zeyher, 1125! Cianwilliam 
Div.; Lange Kloof, 600-700 ft., Schlechter, 8044! 
8. E.Guerkei (Hiern) ; shrubby, glabrate, except on the puberulous 
extremities and infloreseence ; branchlets smooth, dusky, leafy ; leaves 
alternate, or the upper subopposite, obovate or oblanceolate or some- 
times subelliptic, rounded, or very obtuse at the apex, more or less 
wedge-shaped at the base, dark green, delicately veined and net- 
veined above, pale but marked with dark and delicate veins and 
reticulation beneath, entire, nearly flat, except the narrowly revolute 
margin, 4-2 in. long, 1-5 in. broad ; petiole ;!,—} in. long ; flowers 
dicecious. Female cymes axillary, 1—} in. long, puberulous, or nearly 
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