118 ME HIERN, ON EBENACE^. 



constant characters to enable me to separate them specifically, but I find them so com- 

 pletely connected together by intermediate forms that I have no hesitation in considering 

 them all as representing only one very variable species ; variable it may truly be called, 

 since the leaves in var. @. are sometimes not a quarter of an incb in length, whilst in var. 8. 

 they reach to five inches in length." 



East Indies, Wallich! list 4145, 7461, 7535; Dr Wight! 1729, 1730, 1731; Koenig ! ; 

 Perrottetf; Dr AM.'; Malacca, Chr. Smith! 99, Dr Maingay! 979; Heifer and Griffith! 3641 ; 

 Ceylon, Walker! 263, Dr Thwaites! 477, 1916, 1917, 3395; Philippine Islands, Cuming! 

 1694; Sooloo I., Wilk&s! 



New Caledonia, Puncher/ 249, Vieillard ! 2864, 2873, 2877 (?). 



Australia, North Coast Bay, R. Brown! 



Madagascar, Gerard! 28, Bernier! 112, PervilUl 700. 



Tropical Africa, Congo, Chr. Smith!, Dr Welwitsch! 2527; Sierra Leone, Smeathmann I; 

 I. St Thome", Don / (?) ; Guinea, Leprieur ! 



In Ceylon it is called Kaloo-habaraleya-gass, in Godaveri forests Netta maddi, and in 

 Madagascar Cacason mainti. 



The following specimens seem to me to belong to this widely-spread and variable species ; 

 namely, a plant in fruit from the Isle of Pines, Loyalty Islands, Oceania, collected by Sir 

 E. Home (1853, Hb. Mus. Brit.) and Milne, n. 12 (1853, in Hb. Kew.); and a plant with 

 subsessile $ flowers and fruit from the Fiji Islands collected by J. Storck, n. 898 in 1860, 

 which Dr B. Seemann in Fl. Vit. p. 152 (1866) refers to M. elliptica, Forst. var. glabrescens. 



A specimen stated to have been brought from the Straits of Magellan (but probably 

 by mistake) in Herb. Commerson in fruit seems also to belong to this species. 



According to Dr Roxburgh, this species among the mountains of the Coromandel coast 

 of India grows to a small tree, but in the low countries it is only a shrub; it flowers during 

 the hot season; the berries when ripe are there universally eaten and are very well tasted ; 

 the wood is dark-coloured, remarkably hard and durable, and when its size will allow it is 

 employed for such uses as require the most durable and heavy wood. 



13. MABA LANCEA, sp. nov. 



M. foliis lanceolato-oblongis, apice acute acuminatis, basi angustatis, subylabris, subtug 

 pallidis, supra nervis inconspicuis, petiolatis ; floribus masculis subsessilibus, dense cymosis, tri- 

 meris rarius pentameris, staminibus 5 6 (?), antheris basi pubescentibus, ovario 0. 



Young parts and inflorescence puberulous; branches straight, terete, dark, spreading at 

 about 50. Leaves lanceolate-oblong, alternate, firmly submembranous, opaque, acutely acu- 

 minate at apex, somewhat narrowed at base, nearly glabrous except the veins beneath, dark 

 green on upper side, pale beneath, with veins inconspicuous on tipper side ; 3 4 in, long by 

 1 in. or rather more wide ; petioles -fa in. long. 



$ . Flowers small, several together, crowded on very short ferruginous-hairy axillary 

 cymes, ferruginous hairy (closed in the specimen) ; bracts rounded ; calyx openly campanu- 

 late, T ' ? in. long, deeply 3-fid ; with ovate acute lobes pubescent on both sides ; corolla (closed) 

 ^ in. long, ovoid-conical, covered outside with pale ferruginous shining hairs, 3 ?-lobed, glabrous 



