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This species is abundant in Peninsular India. 



Diospyros hirsuta, Linn. til. Suppl., p. 440 (1781). 



Thw. Enmn. Ceyl. PL, p. 181. n. 15 (1860). Alph. DC. Prodr. 

 VIII., p. 223, n. 5 (1844). Bedd. Icon. PL Ind. Or. 1871. 

 Hiern, Mon. Eben. 163. 0. P. 382. Fl. B. Ind. III., 565. 

 Hiera, p. 163-164, includes D. Moonii, Thw. and D. Thwaitesii 

 Bedd., as varieties of D. hirsuta, L., but for reasons given 

 this grouping cannot be maintained. 



A small or moderate-sized tree, evergreen, dioecious, 

 monoecious, and polygamous ; bark black with narrow irreg- 

 ular grooves and ridges ; branches pubescent when young, 

 often groups of stiff brown hairs occurring in local areas on 

 young twigs (cf. D. Thwaitesii). 



Leaves alternate, 90-200 mm. long, 30-60 mm. wide, ovate- 

 lanceolate, tapering apex, obtuse or acute, tapering base ; 

 young leaves densely pubescent, hairs persisting on under- 

 surface, lateral veins and midrib ; sub-coriaceous, pale green 

 below, venation reticulate ; petiole 8-11 mm. long. 



Flowers March-October ; ripe fruits March-August. 



The polygamous condition is very frequent as a result of 

 the. fertility of the pistil in male flowers ; the hermaphrodite 

 flowers occur in any cluster, and consequent on the ripening 

 of the fruit the unisexual flowers become detached leaving 

 only one or two fruiting specimens out of a many-flowered 

 cluster. A single twig or herbarium specimen may there- 

 fore appear to be female only. 



The monoecious condition has been observed by Thwaites. 

 I have confirmed this in material obtained from Potgulkanda 

 near Ratnapura. The same inflorescence possesses male and 

 female flowers, the former with rudimentary pistil and the 

 latter with barren staminodes. (See. pi. XV., fig. 9). 



T7tc male inflorescence consists of dense axillary cymes, 

 sometimes short, at other times drawn out to a length of 20 

 mm. All the flowersare sessile or subsessile, but an opposite 

 pair of small pubescent bracteoles occurs at the base of each 

 flower suggesting a suppressed dichasial cyme. 



