554 CO POLYANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Diospyrus. 
amongst the mountains in the Circars. Leaves not deci- 
duous. Flowering time, March and April. : 
_ Trunk erect, straight, middle sized. Bark pretty smooth, 
of a dark blackish rust colour. Branches spreading, 
scattered; young shoots smooth. Leaves alternate, short- 
petioled, bifarious, linear-oblong, pointed, smooth, firm, 
shining; when young soft and red, six. inches long and 
two broad. Stipules a single variegated one which bursts 
and falls when the leaf begins to expand. 4 
Mae PEpUNCLEs axillary, single, bowing, bearing 
three four or more small white flowers, Bractes, a small, 
deciduous one, below each pedicel. Calyx and corol as — 
in the genus. Filaments about twenty, bifid at the point. 
Axthers about forty, linear, erect. al 
HERMAPHRODITE. PEDUNCLES axillary, single, uD- 
divided, bearing one white flower, which is considerably 
larger than the male. Calyx and corol as in the genus. 
Filaments one, two, three, or four, small, short. Anthers 
linear, small, sterile. Germ globular, eight-celled, with 
~ one ovula in each, attached to the top of the axis. Styles 
four, spreading. Stigmas branched, generally three-cleft. 
Berry globular, as large as a middle-sized apple, pulpy, 
rusty, yellow when ripe and covered with a rust colour- 
ed farina. Seeds generally eight, immersed in pulp, te 
niform, straight, thin at the edge. The wood of this tree 
is but of an indifferent quality, and not much used. — 
The ripe fruit is eaten by the natives, but I cannot 
say it is palatable; it is strongly astringent. == 
Sir William Jones writes me from Calcutta on the 2oth 
December 1791, that the name by which this tree is £& 
nerally known in Bengal is Gaub, (in Sanscrit it is 
ed Tindooka,) and that the astringent viscid mucus ofthe 
fruit, is used all over that country, for paying the bot- 
tom of boats. The unripe fruits contain a very JaT8° 
proportion of Tannin. An infusion is employed to steeP— 
bly adds to their strength. oe 
