DIOSPYBOS EXSOULPTA. (Nat. order Ebenace;©.) 



For Gen. Char, see under " Diospyros Ebenum." 



DlOSPYROS EXSCULPTA. (Ham.) A good sized tree, all the young parts covered with rusty down, leaves alternate 

 and opposite, oval to elliptic attenuated at both ends softly downy, 3-5 inches long by 1 £-2 broad, petioles \ to £ inch long, male pe- 

 duncles a little shorter than or the length of the petioles, 3 flowered, calyx campanulate, 4-6 lobed at the apex, lobes acute erect, corol 

 gibbous 4-6 parted, divisions of the corol very downy rounded at the apex, stamensl()-15 seated on the hairy receptacle, no rudiment of an 

 ovary, female flowers solitary short pedicelled, calyx deeply 4-6 parted with the lobes reflexed at the margin outwards, corol 4-6 parted, 

 divisions rounded at the apex, stamens none, ovary round hairy 4-5 celled, styles 2 each 2 cleft, fruit size of a pigeon's egg edible. 

 Do. Prod, viii, p. 223. Diospyros tomentosa, Boxb. F. hid. ii, p. 532. 



This valuable tree is not uncommon in the Cuddapah, Salem and Kurnool forests, and probably elsewhere in our Presidency, and is found 

 in Bengal and Bombay, it grows to a considerable size and yields a valuable jet-black ebony very similar to that of ebenum, in fad I doubt 

 if the 2 woods could be easily distinguished ; it is called Tunki in the Cuddapah district and Tuniboornee in the Bombay Presidency. The tree 

 theds all its leaves in the cold season, and they appear again with the flowers in the beginning of the hot weather. 



The plate gives a branch of the male tree in flower and a branch of the female in fruit, and dissections of both male and female flowers. 



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