202 Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



Order LXXII. EBENACBiE. 



Shrubs or trees with usually hard wood. Leaves alternate, rarely 

 sub-opposite, entire, usually coriaceous, ex-stipulate. Floioers usually 

 ■dioecious, regular ; the females usually (and the males sometimes) 

 solitary ; the males (and the females occasionally) in short, usually 

 bracteate, axillary or extra-axillary cymes ; pedicels articulated. Calyx 

 inferior, gamosepalous, campanulate or tubular, with 3 to 7 valvate, 

 imbricate or contorted, often accrescent, lobes. Corolla gamopetalous, 

 variously shaped ; the lobes 3 to 7, usually contorted, sometimes 

 imbricate or valvate in bud. Stamens in the S and ^ flowers in a 

 single series, and as many as the corolla-lobes, or 2- or more-seriate 

 and 2 or more times as many ; filaments shorter than the anthers, 

 free or in pairs, or variously connate below ; anthers linear, usually 

 with longitudinal dehiscence, the connective often apiculate ; in the ? 

 flowers reduced to staminodes with empty or abortive anthers, or 

 absent. Dish none. Carpels in the $ flowers abortive or absent ; 

 in the ^ or J flowers connate into a sessile superior ovary, with 2 to 8 

 usually more or less united styles ; the cells as many as or twice as 

 many as the styles with imperfect septa ; ovules twice as many as the 

 styles, anatropous, pendulous from the inner angles of the cells. Fruit 

 a coriaceous or fleshy berry, several- or few-seeded. Seeds pendulous, 

 usually oblong, vertically furrowed ; testa thin ; albumen copious, 

 uniform or ruminate ; embryo axial ; radicle superior. — Distkib. About 

 320 species, in the tropics generally. 



Flowers often 3-merous ; ovary 3- or 6-celled . . . . . . 1. Maba. 



Flowers mostly 4-5-merous ; ovary 4-5 or 8-10-cellecl , . . . '2. Diospykos. 



1. Maba, Forst. 



Trees or shrubs; leaves alternate, entire. Floioers dioecious (monoe- 

 cious in M. Maingayi), axillary, shortly pedicellate or in small dense 

 cymes ; usually 3-merous, rarely 4- or 5-merous. Calyx 3- to 5-fid or 

 partite, rarely sub-truncate, often cup-shaped and accrescent. Corolla- 

 tube usually longer than the calyx ; lobes of the limb 3, twisted to the 

 right hand. Male flowers : stamens 3 to 21 ; filaments distinct, in 

 pairs or otherwise united ; anthers oblong ; ovary rudimentary. 

 Female floioers : staminodes to 12 ; ovary 3-celled or perfectly or 

 imperfectly 6-celled, 6-ovulate. Fruit ellipsoid or globose, baccate, 

 glabrous or hairy, 1-6-celled and 1-6-seeded, rather dry or fleshy ; 

 albumen not ruminate. — Distrib. Species about 70 ; tropical. 

 412 



