DIOSPYROS EBENUM. (Nat. order Ebenaeese.) 



iJlOSPYEOS. Dalech, Dc. Prod, viii, p. 222.— GEN. CHAR. Flowers dieecious, calyx 4-6 lobed or very rarely splitting irregularly, 

 corol tubular campanulate or hypoerateriform aestivation convolute 4.6 lobed, stamens in the male flowers 8-50 generally about 16 inserted at the base of 

 the corol or on the disk or partly on both, filaments of equal length or very unequal and each bearing 1-7 anthers, anthers linear lanceolate, ovary abortive, 

 stamens in the female flowers 0-4-S or more sterile, ovary 4-8 or rarely 12 celled usually covered at the base with the somewhat enlarged calyx. Trees or 

 large shrubs armed or unarmed, leaves alternate rarely subopposite, flowers axillary, the female solitary, the male usually in little clusters. 



-UIOSPYEOS EBENUM. (Eetz.) A large tree, leaves glabrous shining membranaceous or slightly coriaceous, oblong 

 obtuse or shortly and bluntly acuminated, 2-7 inches long by |- to 2| broad, petioles 2-4 lines long, male peduncles short pilose bracte- 

 ated about 3 flowered, calyx funnel-shaped slightly pilose, 4 cleft at the apes, corol long hypoerateriform shortly 4 cleft at the apex, 

 stamens 8-10 inserted on to the base of the corol, generally 2 cleft, each division bearing an anther, one of which is much longer than the 

 other, sometimes 3-4 cleft with as many anthers, no rudiment of an ovary, female flowers solitary, calyx 2 bracteated much larger than 

 in the male, deeply 4 cleft with a callous elevated, 4 lobed marginal ring round its mouth, stamens 8 with double anthers (sterile) in- 

 serted on to the base of the corol, stigmas 4, ovary 8 celled, albumen not ruminate, Dc. Prod, viii, p. 234 ; — Wight's Icones, I. 188. 



This valuable tree is not uncommon in our mountain forests on both sides of the Presidency and in Ceylon ; it yields the best kind of 

 Ebony, generally jet -blade but sometimes slightly streaked v;ith yellow or brown, it is very heavy, close and even grained, and, stands a high polish, 

 unseasoned it weighs 90 to 100 lbs. the cubic foot and 81 lbs. when seasoned, and has a specific gravity of 1'296 ; it is used for inlaying and, ornamental 

 turnery and sometimes for furniture, but there is not much demand for it in this Presidency. The sap wood is white, hard, close-grained and strong 

 but not durable, but is used by the natives for various purposes ; it is called Jfalluti in the Cuddapah and Eurnool hill forests, where the tree is very 

 common and well Tcnotun. The tree figured by me in my Annual Report for 1866-67 as Diospyros assimilis is very nearly allied if distinct as a 

 species, it differs hoivever in each of the stamens in the male bearing 4-6 anthers instead of generally only 2 and the stamens in the female flower being 

 single instead of double, its leaves turn very blade in drying ; it is called Kard mdrd in the Smdh Canara forests, inhere it is very common both in 

 the heavy forests in the plains and on the ghats. 



The plate represents a fruiting branch of the female tree, a floivcring twig of the male, and dissections of the flowers of both sexes. ■> 



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