IN CEYLON. 89 



male flowers, and it is not always easy to correlate the 

 members in the different sexes of the same species. The 

 relation between the male and female staminal whorl is 

 sometimes very simple, as in D. hirsute, where there are five 

 staminal organs in each male and female flower disposed so 

 as to alternate with the corolla lobes. In the majority of 

 Ceylon species, however, the staminodes of the female 

 flowers are much fewer than the stamens in the male, a 

 typical instance of which is seen in D. sylyatica, the male 

 flowers of which have from thirteen to twenty stamens and 

 the female flowers only four staminodes. The staminal 

 whorl is of great interest, and since we have for the first time 

 a complete collection of male and female flowers of every 

 Ceylon species of Diospyros, a detailed account is here given. 

 The Staminal Whorl of the Male Flowers. In every species 

 of Ceylon Diospyros the male flower possesses many perfect 

 stamens. These occur either as an epipetalous ring having a 

 definite or indefinite orientation to the accessory whorls, or 

 as a central hypogynous group ; sometimes both conditions 

 are observed in the same flower. 



The filament is white or yellow and varies in length from 

 O25 to 0*35 mm.; it is perfectly glabrous in some species, 

 e '9-> JD. a-cuta^ and I), affinis, and densely pubescent in others, 

 e.g.,D. opppsitif olia and IX Embryopteris. 



The anther is usually brown in colour and when mature 

 measures from O2 to O3 mm. in length ; sometimes it is 

 strongly apiculate in consequence of the presence of a large 

 number of unicellular hairs which seem to have a duty to 

 perform in the dissemination of pollen ; at other times it is 

 perfectly glabrous. Each anther is lanceolate-linear in shape, 

 erect, two-celled, and dehisces by two longitudinal slits. 



It is characteristic of the stamens in the majority of the 

 male flowers to exhibit fusion ; sometimes the filaments are 

 united throughout their lengths, at other times only for a 

 short distance. In the case of D. hirsuta there are five 

 separate stamens alternating with the corolla lobes ; in D. 



8(1)4 (12) 



