228 MK HIEEN, ON EBENACEJi 



supplied with specimens of his D. costata, and I am also indebted to M. Decaisne for the 

 inspection of original drawings of other forms of this species. On the whole view of the case 

 I prefer to consider all as belonging to one species, which has under cultivation assumed 

 much perplexing variation. Some varieties are considerably more hardy than others; the 

 foliage also in some forms is fine and shining, in others smaller and more pubescent. 



D. lobata, Lour, may very possibly belong to this species, but the fruit is described as 

 only 1 in. in diameter. 



D. Kaki, L. f. is closely allied to D. Lotus, L. and D. virginiana, L., all of which 

 species are very variable and indeed are likely to be confused amongst each other ; D. virgin- 

 iana, L. holds a middle position in respect of the size of the fruit and the length of the 

 inflorescence. 



Fruit [see Hasskarl in Bonplandia, VII. p. 255 (1859)] globose, with a diameter of 2 in. or 

 very depressedly globose, 2J in. wide and If in. high, glabrous and shining, scarlet ; skin thin, 

 membranous; flesh of an orange-scarlet colour, edible, sweet, with yellow fibres joined at the 

 base, and then forked and longitudinally dispersed towards the surface ; fruiting calyx with a 

 brick-coloured tube and green reflexed lobes. Seeds laterally compressed ; in the globose 

 fruits 6, oblong, one face nearly straight the other convex, blunt at the apex, acute at the 

 base, a little produced laterally, 1 in. long, J in. wide ; in the depresso-globose fruits 8, one 

 face rather straight the other more than semi-orbicular, widely rounded at the apex, rather 

 acute at the base, scarcely produced ; all dark, smooth, well wrapt in the fleshy pulp of the 

 mesocarp, and when carefully removed from the flesh rather shining, marked on the convex 

 face along its whole length with an acute yellowish raphe |in. thick. Testa thin, coria- 

 ceous ; albumen milk-white, cartilaginous ; embryo small in proportion to the albumen, 

 straight ; radicle terete, very slightly curved or usually straight, white, \ in. long ; cotyledons 

 thin, whitish, lying parallel side by side, in the globose fruits ovate acute in. long by 

 fa in. wide, in the depresso-globose fruits subrotund, in. in diameter. 



Japan, Nagasaki, fr. ripe in Oct., Oldham! 528, G. Wright! ; Tsu-sima Island, Str. of 

 Corea, G. Wilford! 756, 9 fl. May; Formosa, Oldham! n. 299; Khasia, Dr Hooker!, 

 fruit, Sept. 



For a discussion of D. costata, Cam, in addition to the above reference, see a note 

 by M. Carriere on D. Kaki in Eev. Hortic. 1869, p. 284; a letter of M. Decaisne in the 

 Gardener's Chronicle for 1870, p. 39 ; a letter of M. Carriere in Gard. Chr. 1870, p. 312; 

 and a paper with woodcuts and coloured plate by M. Carriere in Eev. Hortic. 1871, p. 410 ; 

 also Andre* in L'lllustr. Hortic. loc. cit. where the same coloured plate is given, and 

 the Gardener's Chronicle for 1872, p. 576, whence the accompanying figure has been 

 obtained. 



M. Carriere describes his D. Eoxburghi as a monoscious shrub, at times subdioscious by 

 abortion; the male flowers very numerous in comparison with the female and bearing 15 20 

 stamens ; the fruit If in. (2 in. in figure) in diameter, with numerous brown prominences 

 especially towards the apex. He thinks it identical with the D. Kaki, Roxb. from India, but 

 quite distinct from the D. Kaki, Thunb. from Japan ; he finds it considerably more tender and 

 sensitive to cold and much less productive of fruit. It must however be borne in mind that 

 M. Carriere has described his species from a cultivated specimen, and also that the whole group 

 of Kaki has been long cultivated in Japan, China and elsewhere, and thus it may be expected 



