76 WRIGHT : THE GENUS DIOSPYROS 



Sex. 



According to Hiern the genus Diospyros is characterized 

 by dioecious flowers, and only rarely is a polygamous or 

 monoecious state to be observed. It is further stated that 

 when such departures from the dioecious condition do occur 

 they do so only casually, and one is left to infer that the 

 variation is one to be explained on individual grounds and is 

 not of specific importance. 



Including species imperfectly known, Hiern describes 

 170, and of these only 7 per cent, are recorded by himself 

 or others as showing a departure from the dioecious con- 

 dition. 



Accordingly, Hiern formed a classification for the whole 

 of the Ebenaceae, showing the genus Royena, L., with 

 hermaphrodite or rarely subdicecious flowers and the remain- 

 ing genera, viz., Euclea, Linn., Maba, Forst., Diospyros, ., 

 and Tetraclis, gen. nou., with dioecious or rarely polygamous 

 flowers. 



Confining ourselves to the Ceylon representatives of 

 Diospyros, we find that Thwaites and Trimen believed the 

 genus to be characterized by dioecious flowers, and that the 

 flowers were only very rarely monoecious. Thwaites noted 

 the departure from the dioecious condition in two of our 

 species, and stated that in D. acuta the flowers were sometimes 

 monoecious, and that in D. hirsute the female flowers are 

 sometimes intermixed with the male. 



The main source of error has probably been in that the 

 material at hand has not been very abundant, or the exami- 

 nation has been made upon herbarium specimens or material 

 which had been collected some time previously. In the so- 

 called " male " flowers of D_. Gardneri there is very little 

 external character indicative of a fertile pistil in the fresh 

 material, and it is only by continued observation that ripe 

 fruits may be seen. 



Herbarium specimens of known hermaphrodite and poly- 

 gamous flowers of IX affinis, D. hirsuta. and others do not 

 show any prominent external differences from known male 



