202 
Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 
Order LXXII. EBENACEiE. 
Shrubs or trees with usually hard wood. Leaves alternate, rarely 
sub-opposite, entire, usually coriaceous, ex-stipulate. Flowers usually 
dioecious, regular ; the females usually (and the males sometimes) 
solitary; the males (and the females occasionally) in short, usually 
bracteate, axillary or extra-axillary cymes ; pedicels articulated. Calyx 
inferior, gamosepalous, campanulate or tubular, with 3 to 7 valvate, 
imbricate or contorted, often accrescent, lobes. Corolla gamopetalous, 
variously shaped ; the lobes 3 to 7, usually contorted, sometimes 
imbricate or valvate in bud. Stamens in the S and $? flowers in a 
single series, and as many as the corolla-lobes, or 2- or more-seriate 
and 2 or more times as many ; filaments shorter than the anthers, 
free or in pairs, or variously connate below ; anthers linear, usually 
with longitudinal dehiscence, the connective often apiculate ; in the $ 
flowers reduced to staminodes with empty or abortive anthers, or 
absent. Dish none. Carpels in the $ flowers abortive or absent ; 
in the $ or ? flowers connate into a sessile superior ovary, with 2 to 8 
usually more or less united styles ; the cells as many as or twice as 
many as the styles with imperfect septa ; ovules twice as many as the 
styles, anatropous, pendulous from the inner angles of the cells. Fruit 
a coriaceous or fleshy berry, several- or few-seeded. Seeds pendulous, 
usually oblong, vertically furrowed ; testa thin ; albumen copious, 
uniform or ruminate ; embryo axial ; radicle superior. — Distrib. About 
320 species, in the tropics generally. 
Flowers often 3-merous ; ovary 3- or 6-celled . . . . . . 1. Maba. 
Flowers mostly 4-5-merous ; ovary 4-5 or 8-10-celled . . . . ‘2. Diospyros. 
1. Maba, Eorst. 
Trees or shrubs; leaves alternate, entire. Flowers dioecious (monoe- 
cious in M. Maingayi), axillary, shortly pedicellate or in small dense 
cymes ; usually 3-merous, rarely 4- or 5-merous. Calyx 3- to 5-fid or 
partite, rarely sub-truncate, often cup-shaped and accrescent. Corolla- 
tube usually longer than the calyx ; lobes of the limb 3, twisted to the 
right hand. Male flowers : stamens 3 to 21 ; filaments distinct, in 
pairs or otherwise united ; anthers oblong ; ovary rudimentary. 
Female flowers : staminodes 0 to 12 ; ovary 3-celled or perfectly or 
imperfectly 6-celled, 6-ovulate. Fruit ellipsoid or globose, baccate, 
glabrous or hairy, 1-6-celled and 1-6-seeded, rather dry or fleshy ; 
albumen not ruminate. — Distrib. Species about 70 ; tropical. 
