196 
EBENACE.&. 
Order LXIII. EBENACEiE. 
Flowers regular, polygamous. Calyx campanulate, with 3-6 round 
lobes. Corolla with an urceolate tube and 3-6 round spreading lobes. 
Stamens 9-4Q, epipetalous or hypogynous, represented by staminodes 
in the female flower ; filaments short, often connate ; anthers erect, 
adnate, narrow, 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary sessile, 
3-or more-celled, represented by a rudiment in the male flower ; styles as 
many as the cells ; placentas axile ; ovules 1-2 in a cell, pendulous, 
anatropous. Fruit indehiscent, fleshy or coriaceous, girt by the per- 
sistent accrescent calyx. Seeds large ; albumen horny, abundant. — Hard- 
wooded trees or shrubs, with exstipulate alternate coriaceous leaves, 
the sessile flowers solitary or cymose or fascicled at the nodes. Dis- 
trib. Found the world in warmer regions. Species 260. Elaborately 
monographed lately by Mr. Hiern in vol. xii. of the Transactions of the 
Cambridge Philosophical Society. 
Lobes of calyx and corolla 3 1 . Maba. 
Lobes of calyx and corolla usually 4-5, rarely 6 2. Diospyros. 
1. MABA, Forster. 
Flowers polygamous, trimerous. Calyx campanulate, shortly 3- 
lobed. Corolla 3-lobed, exceeding the calyx, campanulate or tubular. 
Stamens in the male flower usually 9, glabrous, distinct or joined in 
pairs ; anthers oblong or linear-lanceolate, placed round a rudimentary 
ovary. Ovary in the female flower 3-6-celled, with 1 or 2 ovules in a 
cell ; styles free or connate below. Fruit globose, or ovoid, dry or bac- 
cate. — Shrubs with alternate entire leaves, the flowers solitary or in 
cymes in their axils. Distrib. Found the world in tropics. Species 59. 
1. M. seychellarum, Hiern , Mon. JEben. 130. An erect shrub, of 
bushy habit, 10-15 feet high, with slender terete rather zigzag brauches, 
clothed with short spreading hairs. Leaves close, distichous, 
rigidly coriaceous, glossy, nearly sessile, oblong-lanceolate, 1-2 in. long, 
obtuse or obscurely emarginate, base cuneate. Male flowers unknown. 
Females 1-3, nearly sessile in the axils of the leaves. Calyx campanu- 
late, £ in. long and broad, with 3 obscure obtuse erect lobes. Ovary 3- 
celled : ovules 2 in a cell. Fruit like a small acorn, oblong, mucronate 
with the persistent base of the style. 
Seychelles, in mountain woods of Mahe, Praslin, and Silhouette, Perville, 36 ! 
Wright! Rome, 323,540! Endemic. 
2. DIOSPYROS, Linn. 
Flowers polygamous, 4-6-merous. Calyx campanulate, with 4-6 short 
lobes, in fruit persistent and accrescent. Corolla with an urceolate tube, 
and 4-6 imbricated round spreading lobes. Stamens in the male flowers 
12-40, surrounding a rudimentary ovary, hypogynous and rising from 
