962 LXXVI. EBENACEyE. 



Oeder LXXVI. EBENACE^. 



Flowers regular, usually dioecious. Calyx free, 3 to 5-lobed or rarely with 

 6 or 7 lobes. Corolla-lobes as many as those of the calyx, imbricate in the bud, 

 usually contorted. Stamens inserted in the base of the corolla or on the torus 

 within it, indefinite, usually from 10 to 20 in the males, fewer and sterile in the 

 females ; anthers erect, linear or larieeclate, the cells opening in longitudinal slits. 

 Ovary free, 8 or more-celled, with 1 or 2 pendulous ovules in each cell. Styles 

 as many or half as many as cells, distinct or united into a simple or 2-cleft style, 

 with small terminal stigmas. Fruit a berry, usually indehiscent. Seeds few, 

 albuminous ; radicle superior ; cotyledons foliaceous. — Trees or shrubs, the juice 

 not milky. Leaves alternate, entire, without stipules. Flowers axillary, the 

 females often solitaty, the males usually clustered or in small cymes. 



The Order, a small one, is dispersed over the tropical and subtropical regions of the New as 

 well as the Old World, extending northward to the United States and to the Caucasus, and 

 southward to the Cape of Good Hope. 



Calyx-lobes, eorolla-ldbes, and ovary-cells 3 each, with 2 ovules in each cell . 1. Maba. 



Calyx and corolla-lobes 4 to 6 each. Ovary -cells the same number or twice as 



many, with 1 or 2 ovules in each ........;.• 2. Diosptros. 



1. MABA, Forst. 



(The aboriginal name of a species in Tonga-Tabu.) 



Galyx-lobes usually 3. Corolla-lobes as many. Ovary 3-celled, with 2 ovules 

 in each cell, without any or rarely with an imperfect spurious dessepiment 

 betweeh them. Styles connate. Fruit ovoid or rarely globular. — Trees or 

 shrubs, with the habit and inflorescence of the Order, the leaves and fruits often 

 but not always smaller than in Diospyro$. , , , 



The genus extends over the tropical regions of the Old World, and more especially over the 

 Indian Archipelago and the islands of the South Pacific. 



Leaves (mostly 3 to 4in. long) shortly and obtusely acuminate. Calyx, 



corolla, and fruit silky-hairy. 



Leaves quite glabrous . 1. M.lauHna. 



Leaves with appressed silky hairs, at least underneath. Fruit nearly 



sessile, globular, 4 to 5 lines diameter 2. 21. serioocarpa. 



Young leaves pilose on both sides, at length glabrescent. Fruit ovoid, 



pedunculate, 5 to 7 lines long, densely covered with red hairs .... 3. M. rufa. 

 Leaves (mostly 3 to 4in. long) shortly acuminate, glabrous. Fruit glabrous. 

 Calyx not above 1 line long. Corolla siftall. 



Female flowers solitary, almost sessile 4. ilf . hemicycloides. 



Male flowers in loose dichotomous cymes 6. M. laxiflora. 



Calyx at the time of flowering 2 lines long, with broad obtuse lobes. 



Flowers in dense sessile clusters ... . . 6. M. fasciculosa. 



Leaves (rarely Sin.) obovate, ovate or oblong, very obtuse. 

 Leaves (mostly 2 to 3in.) strongly reticulate. Berry globular. 



Fruiting calyx very flat and open 1. M. compacta. 



Fruiting calyx cup-shaped 8. Jlf. reticulata. 



Leaves not much reticulate. Berry ovbid. Fruiting-calyx cup-shaped. 



Leaves mostly about 2in., obovate, oval or oblong . 9. ilf. gejninata. 



Leaves mostly about lin. or less, orbicular, obovate or oblong-cuneate 10.- M. humilis. 



1. IKE. laurina (Laurel-like), R. Br. Prod. 527 ; Benth Fl. Austr. iv. 289. 

 A small tree, the young shoots sprinkled with a few appressed hairs. Leaves 

 shortly petiolate, ovate-dblong, very obtuse or shortly and obtusely acuminate, 

 rigid, coriaceous, shining above, reticulate, 3 to 4in. long. Flowers nearly 

 sessile, the males few together, the females solitary, larger than in any of the 

 following species. Calyx nearly globular, about 3 lines long, silky-villous with 

 rusty hairs ; lobes short., rounded. Corolla yellowish -white (E. Brown), the 

 tube shortly exserted, the lobes half as long as the tube, all silky-villous outside. 

 Stamens in the males 9, the filaments alternately free and united in pairs, none 



