226 
is very short, and inferior. In Ebenaceae there is no milk, and the wood is 
very hard ; the flowers are usually unisexual, the segments of the calyx 
and corolla are almost always in a single row : the stamens are usually doubled, 
and either twice or four times as numerous as the segments of the corolla, or, 
if equal to them, alternate with them ; the style is generally divided, the cells 
of the ovary sometimes 2-seeded, the ovules always pendulous, the testa thin 
and soft, the embryo middle-sized or small in respect to the cartilaginous al- 
bumen, which is always present ; the radicle is of middling length, or very 
long and superior. R. Brown Prodr. 529. It is worth remarking, that the 
woody shell of the seed of Sapotacese is certainly testa, and not putamen, as is 
proved by the presence of the micropyle upon it. If Acosta of the FI. Peruviana 
really belongs here, Sapotacese will exhibit in that genus an approach to the 
irregularity of Labiosse, and to the monadelphous stnicture of Meliacese. 
Geography. Chiefly natives of the tropics of India, Africa, and Ameri- 
ca ; a few are found in the southern parts of North America, and at the Cape 
of Good Hope. 
Properties. The fimit of many is esteemed in their native countries as 
an article of the dessert : such are the Sappodilla Plum, the Star Apple, the 
Marmalade (Achras mammosa) the Medlar of Surinam, the Mimusops Elengi, 
and others ; they are described as having generally a sweet taste, with a little 
acidity. The seeds of Achras Sapota are aperient and diuretic ; those of some 
others are filled with a concrete oil, which is used for domestic purposes. Mi- 
musops Kaki, like many trees with astringent bark, yields a gum, while its 
fmit is of a sweetish taste, and much eaten by the natives of India. Royle. 
A kind of thick oil, like butter, is obtained from the fruit of Bassia butyi'acea, 
the Mahva or Madhuca Tree. Tlie flowers of the same tree are employed ex- 
tensively in the distillation of a kind of arrack. Ed. P. J, 12. 192. Tlie 
juice of the bark of Bassia longifolia is prescribed by the Indian doctors in 
rheumatic afiTections. Ainslie, 2. 100. The Butter Tree of Mungo Park was 
also a species of Bassia. See Royle s Illustrations, p. 263, for further infor- 
mation concerning these Bassias. The bark of 4 species of Achras is so as- 
tringent and febrifugal as to have been substituted for quinquina. The Cow 
Tree of Humboldt has been sometimes supposed to be referable to this order ; 
but there seems no reason now to doubt its belonging to Artocarpeae. The 
Tingi da Praya of Brazil, with which the Indians destroy fish, is the Jacquinia 
obovata. The branches are bruised and thrown into the water. It must not 
be confounded with another fish poison, called Tingi only, which is a species of 
PauUinia. Pr. Max. Trav. 166. 
GENERA. 
Achras, L. 
Lucuma, Juss. 
Chrysophyllum, L. 
Nycterisition, R. P, 
Imbricaria, Commers. 
Binectaria, Forst. 
Mimusops, L. 
Bassia, Kon. 
Bumelia, Sw. 
Hornschuchia, Nees. 
Hunteria, Roxb. 
Sersalisia, R. Br. 
Sideroxylon, L. 
Argania, Schousb. 
Omphalocarpus, P. 
de B. 
? Acosta, R. P. 
Order CLXXII. EBENACE.^. The Ebony Tribe. 
Guaiacan^, Gen. 155. (1789) part of the first sect.— E b-enaceje, Vent. Tabl. 443. 
(1799) ; Brown Prodr. 524. (1810). — Ebenaceae, § Diospyreae, DC. and Duby, 
320. (1829). 
Essential Character. — Flowers polygamous or dicecicus, seldom hermaphrodite. 
Calyx in 3 or 6 divisions, nearly equal, persistent. Corolla monopetalous, hypogynous, 
