177-4 Leaflets of Philippine Botany [Vol. V, Art. 93 



EBENACEAE 

 Diospyros alata Elm. n. sp. 



A suberect shrub; stem 2 to 3 cm. thick, terete, 3 to 

 4 ra. high, its few main branches arising from below the 

 middle; wood white, moderately hard, odorless and tasteless; 

 bark smooth, ater to murinus, the middle region whitish, the 

 inner side yellowish; branches relatively long, spreading and 

 even raclining for the longer ones, rebranched in subwhorls; 

 twigs slender, terete, blackish when dry, pulverulent or pu- 

 berulent. Leaves copious, alternatingly scattered along all 

 branchlets, turning nearly black on both sides while drying, 

 entire, glabrous, ascending or horizontal, flat, coriaceous, a 

 shade paler green beneath, rather abruptly acute at apex, its 

 point rounded, base broadly obtuse, the average ones 4 cm. 

 long and 2 cm. wide across the widest part, elliptic or a 

 trifle more oblong; midvein ultimately glabrous, pronounced 

 beneath, minutely grooved above; lateral nerves 5 to 7 on 

 each side, comparatively faint, divaricate, tips archingly 

 united or coarsely reticulate above the middle, the reticula- 

 tions more evident from the upper side; petiole 3 mm. long 

 never exceeding 5 mm., also black, puberulous in the young 

 state. Flowers in persistent axillary groups, the short stalks 

 puberulent and very short branched toward the end, bearing 

 few to several flowers; pedicels likewise very short subtended 

 by minute bracts; calyx yellowish green as is also its pedicel, 

 3 mm. long, glabrous or nearly so, drying black, 4-segmented, 

 well separated even in the bud state, coriaceous, triangular 

 in shape, apex blunt, united only at the very base and 

 persistent, becoming much enlarged in the fruiting state, 1.25 

 mm. wide across the base; petals 4, cremeus, conically pointed 

 and imbricate in the bud state, 2 to 3 mm. longer than 

 the sepals, united toward the base, the segmented portion 

 similar to the sepals, subglabrous and turning black uptn 

 drying; stamens about 8 pairs, inserted upon the basal 

 portion of the corolla base; the glabrous black filaments 1.5 

 mm. long or the shorter inner one only one half as long 

 and inserted upon the basal portion of the outer filaments; 

 anther grayish, fully t mm. long, truncately rounded at 



