Sapotacea.'} sapotace^. 209 



in each cell. Style simple, with an entire or slightly lobed stigma. Fruit a 

 berry or drupe, usually iudehiscent. Seeds either with a fleshy albumen and 

 foliaceous cotyledons, or witliout albumen and with fleshy cotyledons. — Trees 

 or shrubs, with the juice frequently milky. Leaves alternate, entire, usually 

 coriaceous, without stipules. Flowers axillary, solitary or clustered. 



An Order widely distributed over both the New and the Old World, within the tropics 

 or not spreading far beyond them. 



1. SIDEROXYLON, Linn. 



Calyx and corolla 5 -lobed. Stamens 5 fertile inserted in the tube of the 

 corolla opposite its lobes, and 5 small sterile scale-like ones alternating with 

 the corolla-lobes. Ovary 5-celled, or rarely 4- or 2-celled. Berry ovoid or 

 globiQar, with 1 to 3 seeds. Albumen fleshy. Embryo in the centre, almost 

 as long, with broad thin cotyledons. — Flowers small, usually white, in axillary 

 clusters. 



A considerable genus, with nearly the range of the whole Order. 



1. S. Wightianum, Hook, and Am. Bot. Beech, t. 41 ; A. DC. Prod. 

 viii. 178, not of Wall. An erect glabrous shrub. Leaves evergreen, from 

 broadly oblong or almost obovate to narrow-oblong, obtusely acuminate, 

 2 to 4 in. long, quite entire, narrowed into a rather long petiole, pale under- 

 neath ; the pinnate veins and transverse reticulations conspicuous on both 

 sides. Pedicels about 3 lines long. Flowers small, whitish, the lobes of the 

 corolla and sterile stamens usually rather broader than represented in the above 

 quoted plate. Ovary hairy. Fruit about ^ in. long. 



In the Happy Valley woods, Mount Victoria, and Little Hongkong, Champion, Wilford, 

 and others : also on the adjacent continent, but not known beyond S. China. 



Order LXVII. EBENACE^. 



Flowers regular, usually dioecious. Calyx free, 3- to 5 -lobed, or rarely 

 with 6 or 7 lobes. Corolla-lobes as many, imbricate in the bud. Stamens 

 inserted at the base of the corolla or on the torus within it, indefinite, usually 

 about 15 in the male flowers, much fewer and sterile in the females; anthers 

 erect, linear or lanceolate. Ovaiy free, 3- or more celled, with 1 or 2 pen- 

 dulous ovules in each cell. Styles as many or half as many as cells, distinct 

 or more or less united, simple or 2-cleft, with small terminal stigmas. Fruit 

 a berry, usually indehiscent. Seeds few, with albumen ; radicle superior ; co- 

 tyledons foliaceous. — Trees or shrubs ; the juice not milky. Leaves alternate, 

 entire, without stipules. Flowers axillary, the females often solitaiy, the males 

 usually clustered or in small cymes. 



A rather small Order, spread over tropical and subtropical Asia, Africa, America, and 

 southern Afiica, with a very few Australian species. 



Ovary 3 -celled 1. Rospidios. 



Ovary 4-, 8-, or more celled 2. Diospyros. 



1. ROSPIDIOS, A. DC. 



Characters of Diospyros, except that tlie ovary is 3-celle(l with 3 styles. — 

 Shrubs with small leaves. 



