14 EBENACEM. [Diospybos. 



LXVII.— EBENACEiE. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, exstipulate, 

 entire, usually coriaceous. Flowers axillary, usually dioecious, 

 regular, solitary and sub-sessile, or in short usuilly bracteate cymes, 

 pedicels articulate under the flower. Calyx inferior, ganaosepalous, 

 often accrescent in fruit, lobes 3-7. Corolla gamopetalous ; lobes 

 3-7, generally contorted. Stamens as many or 2-3 times as many as 

 the corolla-lobes, hypogynous, free or the filaments paired or variously 

 united ; anthers narrow, basifixed, usually dehiscing longitudinally, 

 connective often produced. Staminodes in the fern, flower resem- 

 bling stamens or 0. Ovary superior, sessile ; styles 2-8 ; cells as 

 many or twice as many as the styles, imperfectly septate ; ovules 

 twice as many as the stvles, attached to the inner angle of the 

 cells, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit coriaceous or fleshy, indehiscenr, 

 1- or fetv-seeded. Seeds pendulous, testa thin ; albumen copious 

 uniform or ruminate. — Species about 250, in the tropics of boh 

 hemispheres, a few in S. Africa and in N. America. 



DIOSPYROS, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. iii, 553. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, rarely subopposite. Flowers 

 dioecious, very rarely polvgamcus, axillary and short-pedicel led or in 

 small cymes, sometimes (the females often) solitary, usually 4-5- 

 merous. Calyx more or less deeply lobed, rarely truncate, usually 

 accrescent in the female flower. Corolla tubular, salver-shaped or 

 campanulate, shortly or deeply lobed ; lobes twisted to the right. 

 Male fl. : Stamens 4-many (usually 16) ; filaments distinct or paired 

 or otherwise united ; anthers linear or lanceolate, rarely short ; ovary 

 rudimentary. Feu. fl. : Staminodes 0-16. Ovary globose or 

 conical, 4-10-celled ; ovules solitary (rarely 2) in each cell ; styles 

 or stigmas 1-4. Fruit globose ellipsoid or ovoid-conic, usually 

 supported by the enlarged and sometimes woody calyx, pulp often 

 viscid. Seeds oblong, usually compressed, albumen uniform or rumi- 

 nate. — Species about 180, mostly tropical. 



Seeds with ruminate albumen, leaves alter- 

 nate and subopposite . . . 1. D. tomentosa. 



Albumen of seeds not ruminate, leaves always 

 alternate : — 



Stamens 16, in two rows, unequal : — 

 Male flowers in smalt few-flowered 



panicles, staminodes usually four . 2. D. mcntana. 



