L.tXVIII. EBEXACE>G. 97 



connecti\e, often Lairy. Ovary rudimentary or 0. Female flowers : 

 Staminodes usually fewer than the stamens of the male flowers or 0. 

 Ovary superior, sessile ; styles 2-8, free or more or less connate into a 

 2-8-fid style ; cells as many or twice as many as the styles, imperfectly 

 septate ; ovules twice as many as the styles, attached to the inner angle 

 of the cells, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit coriaceous or fleshy, inde- 

 hiscent, 1- or few-seeded. Seeds pendulous, usually oblong, more or 

 less compressed, longitudinally 2-3-furrovved ; testa thin or coriaceous, 

 smooth ; albumen copious, uniform or ruminate; embryo axile ; radicle 

 superior. — Disteib. Warmer regions of both hemispheres, a few extra- 

 tropical ; genera 5 or 6 ; species about 250. 



Flowers often 3-raerous ; ovary 3- or G-celled 1. Maba. 



Flowers mostly 4-5-iiierou3 ; ovary 4-5- or 8-lO-celled 2. Diospyros. 



1. MABA, Forst. 



Trees or shrubs, usually with hard wood. Leaves alternate. Flowers 

 dicBcious, axillary, solitary or shortly cymose, usually 3 (rai^ely 4-6) 

 -merous. Calyx campauulate, sometimes accrescent, 3-fid (rarely trun- 

 cate or 4-6-fid). Corolla campanulate or tubular ; lobes 3 (rarely 4-6), 

 twisted to the right. Male flowers : Stamens 3--x) (usually 9), mostly 

 glabrous ; filaments distinct or variously connate ; anthers oblong or 

 linear-lanceolate, dehiscing by lateral slits. Rudimentary ovary small. 

 Female flowers : Staminodes or fewer than the stamens of the male 

 flov^•ers. Ovary 3-celled, the cells 2-ovulate, or 6-celled, the cells 

 1-ovulate ; styles or style-branches 3. Fruit globose or ovoid, baccate 

 or dry. Seeds 1-6 ; albumen not ruminate in the Indian species. — 

 DiSTRiB. Warmer regions of both hemispheres ; species 59. 



Calyx 3-4-lobed ; ovary hairy 1. M. nigrescens. 



Calyx truncate ; ovary glabrous 2. M. micrantha, 



1. Maba nigrescens, Dalz. in T)alz. 4- Gihs. Bo. Fl. (1861) p. 142. 

 A large shrub or small tree (15-35 ft., Ritchie, MS. in Herb. Kew.) ; 

 young shoots clothed with ferruginous pubescence. Leaves 1^-3 by 

 |-1 in., coriaceous, oblong-lanceolate, subacute, glabrous above, fulvous- 

 hairy on the midrib beneath, reticulately veined, margins undulate, more 

 or less cihate ; petioles g in. long, densely fulvous-hairy. Male 

 FLOWERS 3-4-merous, subsessile, in short C3'mes of 1-5 flowers. Calyx 

 ■^— I" in. long, densely fulvous-hairy ; lobes 3-4, triangular, acute, Jg- in. 

 long. Corolla ^ in. long, white; tube about equalling the lobes; lobes 

 3-4, obovate, obtuse, densely hairy on the back. Stamens in 3-merous 

 flowers 9, in 4-merous flowers 4-6, glabrous, hypogynous ; filaments 

 slender ; anthers ^ in. long, linear, acute. Rudimentary ovary hairy. 

 Female flowers 1-2 together, 3-merous. Calyx ^ in. long, fulvous- 

 hairy ; lobes broadly ovate or suborbicular. Corolla \ in. long ; lobes 

 oblong, rounded at the apex. Staminodes 0. Ovary hairy, 3-celled. 

 Fruit ellipsoid, clothed when J'oung with fulvous silky hairs ; fruiting 

 calyx cup-shaped, ^ in. wide. Fl. B. I. v. 3, p. 551 ; Hiern, Monogr. 

 Eben. (1873) p. 115; Talb. Trees, Bomb. ed. 2, p. 209; Woodr. in 

 Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1898) p. 163 ; Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. v. 5, 

 p. 102. — Flowers : Nov.-Feb. Veen, lialta-rora. 



Confined in the Bombay Presidency to the Konkan and Kanara. Konka\ : Law !; 

 VOL. II. H 



