EBENACEAE. 325 



at the ends of the twigs, 5-12 cm. long, the lateral veins nearly transverse, 

 delicate, close together, the apex obtuse, the base mostly narrowed, the slender 

 petioles 5-20 mm. long; peduncles about as long as the petioles; sepals 8-10 

 mm. long; corolla-lobes about half as long as the tube; staminodia longer than 

 the stamens ; fruit globose or ovoid, 3-8 cm. in diameter, rough, brown, the flesh 

 sweet, brownish, milky; seeds usually several, flattened, about 2 cm. long, with 

 a white scar on the inner edge. 



Scrub-lands, spontaneous after cultivation, in various localities in the Bahamas : 

 Florida ; West Indies ; Mexico and northern South America. SAPODILLA. 



Family 2. EBENACEAE Vent. 

 EBONY FAMILY. 



Trees or shrubs with very hard wood, entire estipulate leaves, and 

 dioecious polygamous, or rarely perfect, regular flowers, solitary or cympse 

 in the axils. Calyx inferior, 3-7-lobed, commonly accrescent and persist- 

 ent. Corolla gamopetalous, deciduous, 3-7-lobed, the lobes usually con- 

 volute in the bud. Stamens 2-3 times as many as the lobes of the corolla 

 in the sterile flowers, and inserted oh its tube, usually some imperfect ones 

 in the pistillate flowers; anthers introrse, erect. Disk none. Ovary 

 superior, several-celled; in the staminate flowers rudimentary or none; 

 ovules 1-3 in each cavity, suspended; styles 2-8, distinct, or united below; 

 stigmas terminal, sometimes 2-parted. Fruit a berry. Seeds oblong, the 

 testa bony; endosperm copious, cartilaginous; embryo small; cotyledons 

 large, foliaceous. About 6 genera and 275 species, mostly tropical. 



1. MABA Forst. Char. Gen. PI. 121. 1776. 



Hard-wooded trees or shrubs, with alternate petioled leaves, and dioecious 

 (rarely monoecious) axillary, mostly 3-parted flowers, usually solitary, or the 

 staminate ones in small clusters. Calyx campanulate or tubular-campanulate, 

 accrescent and persistent in fruit. Corolla campanulate or tubular. Staminate 

 flowers with few or several stamens, the filaments separate or connate, the 

 anthers oblong or linear, the ovary rudimentary. Pistillate flowers with a 

 3-celled or 6-celled ovary, and 3 styles or a 3-cleft style, sometimes with 

 staminodia. Fruit baccate, somewhat fleshy or dry. Seeds 1-6, the endosperm 

 commonly ruminated. [Tonga Islands name.], Sixty species or more, natives 

 of tropical regions. Type species: Maba elliptica Forst. 



1. Maba crassinervis (Krug & Urban) Urban, Symb. Ant. 7: 329. 1912. 

 Maba caribaea crassinervis Krug & Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 15: 327. 1893. 



A shrub 1-3 m.- high, or a small tree up to about 7 m. high, the branches 

 slender, gray, stiff, the young twigs pubescent. Leaves obovate to elliptic, 

 coriaceous, 3-7 cm. long, rounded, subtruncate or obtuse at the apex, obtuse or 

 narrowed at the base, glabrous, dark green and shining above, pale, strongly 

 and densely reticulate-veined and pubescent beneath, the stout pubescent 

 petioles 2-7 mm. long; staminate flowers 3 together on short axillary peduncles; 

 calyx 3-4-toothed, densely pubescent, about 4 mm. long; corolla glabrous 

 within, densely pubescent without; stamens 9; pistillate flowers solitary; 

 fruit solitary and short-peduncled in the axils, globose, yellowish, 1.5-2.3 cm. 

 in diameter, the persistent calyx 1-2 cm. wide; seeds about 1 cm. long, ovoid, 

 oblique. 



