MB HIERN, ON EBENACE^E. 91 



Dioecious or occasionally polygamous. Calyx campanulate or small and flattish, 4 7-lobed, 

 usually 4 5-fid; lobes lanceolate ovate or deltoid; not accrescent. Corolla campanulate or 

 hemispherical, 4 7-lobed, 4 5-fid or -partite or -lobed only near the apex. 



<J Stamens 10 30, usually 12 20, either free or in pairs or combined at base of 

 filaments, in one or two rows, inserted at base of interior of tube of corolla or hypo- 

 gynous or partly in both ways, sometimes inserted on an hypogynous ring; anthers hairy 

 or glabrous, oblong or lanceolate, 2-celled, dehiscing laterally ; filaments short, usually 

 slender and glabrous. Styles 1 2. Ovary usually abortive. 



$ Staminodes usually absent, sometimes 2 4, glabrous ; anthers 0. Styles 2 (or 1, bifid), 

 usually glabrous, rarely 3 ; stigmas emarginate or bifid at apex ; ovary ovoid or globular, hairy 

 or glabrous, usually 4-celled, rarely 2- or 6-celled ; ovules 4, or rarely 6 when the ovary is 

 6-celled, pendulous. Fruit globular or rarely ovoid-conical, usually 1-celled and 1-seeded ; peri- 

 carp fleshy. The fruit is edible and is called Guarry. Seed globular, usually marked outside 

 by 3 longitudinal depressed lines. Albumen cartilaginous, usually with a normal intrusion of 

 the testa at the micropyle, distinctly ruminated in a few species ; embryo usually some- 

 what curved with its concavity towards the centre of the seed, tending to be incumbent ; 

 radicle superior, about as long as the foliaceous cotyledons. Flowers in axillary racemes or 

 rarely in panicles or solitary. 



African shrubs or trees with alternate or opposite leaves, or rarely verticillate 3 together. 

 Leaves quite entire except E. ovata and K coriacea in which they are sometimes minutely 

 or obscurely crenulate ; usually coriaceous, often obovate, not acuminate except in E. ovata, 

 evergreen. 



The name is derived from the Greek ewcXet'o, glory, in consequence of the beautiful 

 evergreen foliage. 



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