APPENDIX. 807 



oblong-, poiuted, very hairy, and somewhat shorter than the permanent 

 calyx; cells 3-5-seeded. This tree furnishes the islanders with an hard, 

 close-grained mahogany-coloured, durable wood. 



L DoMBEYA melanoxylon. R. Melhania melanoxylon. Hort. Kew. 2d. 

 edit. 4. 146. 



Leaves ovate- cord ate, long-petioled subentire, firm, smooth above, 

 ferruginously hoary underneath, obscurely 3-nerved. Peduncles axillary 

 solitary, 1-2-flowered : flowers pentandrous. Capsules ovate, obtuse, 

 greatly shorter than the permanent calyx ; cells 2-3-seeded. 



Ebony the vernacular name. 



Is a native of the barren rocks near the sea, and not far from Sandy Bay, 

 on the south side of the island, I saw it in two gardens only, where it had 

 in many years grown to the height of only 2-3 feet, with many longer 

 branches spreading flat on the ground, well decorated with abundance of 

 foliage and large beautiful flowers. Bark of the old ligneous parts rather 

 rough and of a dark olive-black colour ; of the young shoots hoary with 

 stellate pubescence, each starlet thereof has a ferruginous centre. Petioles, 

 under side of the leaves, peduncles, bractes and calyx have the same 

 covering. The leaves are greatly smaller than in D. Erythroxylon, but 

 more entire. Stipules subulate. Peduncles length of the leaves, 1-2-flowered. 

 Mowers large, campanulate ; when they first expand white, becomiipo; pink 

 or rosy by age. Bractes tern, ovate, lanceolate, pressing the ba^e of the 

 calyx. Stamina 5, shorter than the 5 dark purple clavate, nectarial 

 filaments. 



In some parts on the south side of the island near the sea, numbers of 

 the dry trunks were found in former days : now few remain ; the greater part 

 having been carried away for fuel : those little trunks are but a few feet 

 in length, generally very crooked, and run from 1 to 3 or 4 feet in cir- 

 cumference near the root ; those parts of the roots and hranche^ which 

 remain spread nearly horizontal ; the exterior surface is pretty even, and 

 ofa dark lead colour, having been exposed to the weather, for, probably, 

 some hundred years ; within it is nearly as black as common ebony, and as 



