MB HIERN, ON EBENACE^E. 123 



Maba Ebenus, Spreng. Syst. Veg. ir. p. 126. n. 8 (1825), Alph. DC. 1. c. p. 242. n. 17, 



Hassk. Retz. i. p. 107 (1855), non Wight. 



IMaba? ebenoxylon, G. Don, Diet. Gard. and Bot. IV. p. 43. n. 10 (1837). 

 Diospyros hexasperma, Hasselt ex Hassk. PL Javan. p. 468. n. 353 (1848). 



A shrub of 6 ft. or more or a moderate-sized tree or sometimes a lofty tree ; branches 

 slender, cinereous, terete, rather rough ; shotits hairy ; glabrescent ; leaves elliptical or oblong- 

 lanceolate, obtuse at apex, cuneate at base, glabrescent, subcoriaceous, 1^ 4 in. long by 

 | If in. wide ; petioles -fa \ in. long. 



<5 . Cymes longer than the petioles, \ \ in. long exclusive of the flowers, pubescent, 

 3 8-flowered, crowded on the young branches ; common peduncle ^ \ in. long ; bracts 

 linear, small, caducous; flowers trimerous, \ in. long, campanulate-tubular, pubescent; calyx cam- 

 panulate, \ in. long, lobes deltoid-acute ; corolla tubular, 3-fid, yellowish white, lobes acute, ^ in. 

 long, rather patent ; stamens 3 or 6, hypogynous, glabrous, distinct ; ovary rudimentary, hirsute. 

 9 . Cymes \ \ in. long ; flowers as in $ ; staminodes ; ovary hairy, ovoid, 3- (or 

 according to Labillardiere 4- or by abortion 2-) celled ; cells 2-ovuled ; style short ; stigma 

 3 ( 4)-lobed ; fruit fleshy, pedunculate, crowded, greenish, ellipsoidal, scarcely 1 in. long 

 by \ in. thick, pubescent or nearly glabrous, 2 3-celled ; seeds triquetrous ; albumen car- 

 tilaginous ; plumule indistinct ; fruiting calyx not accrescent, somewhat spreading, 3-fid, 

 \ \ in. across; lobes deltoid. 



Friendly Islands, Forster!, Capt. Cook!, A. Matthews ! 144 ; Navigator's Islands, Wilkes! 

 var. foliis acuminatis; Amboina, Rumf, Teijsmann!, Hasskarl ; Java, Hasselt; Cochinchina (?), 

 Loureiro ; New Caledonia, Labillardiere !, Vieillard ! 893 ; " Amsterdam Insula Oceani pa- 

 cifici" (= Tonga Tabboo, Friendly Islands), J. R. and G. Forster!. Called Maba, by the natives 

 in the Friendly Islands, and Kihariipat in Java. The plant called Anume in Navigator's Islands 

 (see Rev. Thomas Powell in Seemann's Journal of Botany, Vol. vi. p. 278, 1868) may belong to 

 this species ; it is eaten by children, and flowers in June or July and in January or February. 



Difficult when young to distinguish from M. rufa, and approaching also M. buxifolia. 



* 



21. MABA SUMATRANA, Miq. PL Junghuhn. i. p. 204 (1851 55), FL Ned. Ind. vol. n. 



p. 1051, tab. xxxvi. B (1856). 



M. foliis ovato- vel ovali-oblongis, acuminatis, basi rotundatis, costatis, subtus secus costas 

 hirtellis ; cymis masculis axillaribus, multiftoris ; calyce trilobo ; corolla ovoideo-tubulosd ; sta- 

 minibus 9, glabris ; ovarii rudimento pubescente. 



A subferruginous, pubescent tree, about 30 feet in height. Branches terete. Leaves 

 ovate- or oval-oblong, acuminate, rounded at base; margins flat, dark green, and with scat- 

 tered appressed long hairs on upper face; velutinous and subferruginous, especially on veins 

 beneath ; lateral veins numerous (about 8), plain beneath ; petiolate ; subcoriaceous ; 2| 4 in. 

 in length by | 1J in. in width ; petioles T ' T \ in. in length. 



<5 . Cymes pedunculate, many-flowered, 1 in. in length ; flower (in bud) \ in. in 

 length, oblong, subferruginous, tomentose ; calyx ^ in. in length, 3-lobed at apex ; corolla 

 ovoid-tubular, with a slight constriction near middle, 3-fid ; lobes cordate, sub-acute ; sta- 

 mens 9, 6 in 3 pairs, 3 distinct, glabrous; anthers as long as filaments; ovary rudimentary, 

 hairy. 



162 



