292 LXXII. EBENACEiE. [Mak. 



Browu's specimens of M, kumilis are females in fruit from Broad Sound, those of 

 M, obovata are males in flower from the Carpentaria islands, but appear to me to belong to 

 one and the same species. 



Oeder lxxiii. styracace^. 



Flowers regular, hermaplirodite. Calyx-tube usually more or less adnate 

 to the ovary, the limb 5- or rarely 4-lobed. Corolla regular, deeply divided 



into as many lobes as the calyx or rarely (in species not Australian) twice as 

 many, imbricate or valvate in the bud. Stamens usually indefinite, some- 

 times only twice as many or equal in number to the corolla-lobes, attached m 

 one or more series to the base or within the tube of the corolla, those of the 

 outer series usually alternating with the corolla-lobes. Ovary more or less 

 inferior or rarely quite superior, 2- to S-celled, with 2 or more ovules in each 

 cell, either all pendulous or the upper ones erect. Style undivided ; stigma 

 capitate, entire or lobed. Fruit more or less succulent and indehisceut or 

 rarely opening in valves. Seed usually solitary, the embryo in the axis of a 

 flesliy albumen. — Trees or shrubs. Leaves 'alternate, entire or toothed, 

 without stipules. Flowers axillary, solitary or in simple or branched 

 racemes; 



A small Order, dispersed over the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and America, 

 with very few African species and only one extending into Europe. The Austrahan genua 

 is the principal one in Asia and America. 



1. SYMPLOCOS, Linn. 



. Calyx 5-lobed. Corolla-lobes imbricate in the bud, and not contorted, 

 the petals sometimes almost free. Stamens more than twice as many as co- 

 rolla-lobes. Fruit a berry, crowned by the calyx-lobes. Cotyledons miicU 

 shorter than the radicle.— Trees or shrubs, the foliage often turning yellowi^n 

 in drying. Flowers in axillary, simple or branched, spikes or racemes. 



The geiins ranges over * — :«--i — i - i ^ . • i a .. _. i * :„„ t..,f nnnnnrs to l>e ^^ 



cient in Africa. Of the iwu iiusiraiian species, one, esiennnig lo mc laia""- -^ 

 Pacific, is a slight variety of a comniuu Asiatic one, the other appears to be endemic 

 belonging to a scries in which the limitation of species is not very definite. 



Flowers sessile or nearly so. Petals about U hnes diameter . . . 1- ^- Tf^%sii 

 Flowers distinctly pedicellate. Petals about 3 lines diameter ... 2. 5. J-^icati 



1. S. spicata, EoxL ; A. DC, Prod, viii. 254, var. australis, A inode- 

 rate sized tree, quite glabrous. Leaves usually oval-elliptical or oDio r 

 elliptical, but varying from obovate tolanceolatc/obtuseor ^hoi'^b^ ^^'l"'"J^ J 

 cntn-e or irregularly toothed, contracted into a petiole, mostly about 4 m. % 

 but sometmies much larger, smooth and often shining but scarcely so m 

 so as m /. TkwaitesiL Flowers small, sessile or nearly so and often mu' 

 rous, m axillary spikes sometimes simple but more frequently ^^^f ^^ ^.g 

 a panicle of 1 to 2 in. Bracts and braeteoles small and very decuui^ j 

 Calyx-lobes exceedingly short, broad. Petals about U li"*^^ "^^^'^'m lous'' 

 m a ring with the stamens, which are sometimes obscurely ^"^'^^^-IP rjt 

 Fnut m the Australian form ovoid, contracted at the top.— Seom. ^^• 

 153 ; S, Sfawelliij F. Muell, Fi\wm. t. 60. 



vcv tropical and subtropical Asia and America, but appears to be^^^^ 

 _he two Australian species, one, extending to the islands of the ^^^^ 



I 



