Diospyros .] 
EBENACEiE. 
197 
the base of the petals; filaments short, often joined in pairs; anthers 
linear. Ovary in the female flower sessile, mostly 8-12-celled, usually 
accompanied by staminodes ; styles short or obsolete ; ovules solitary 
in the cells. Fruit indehiscent, large, pulpy. — Trees, with alternate 
entire coriaceous leaves, the flowers solitary or clustered at the nodes. 
Distbib. Round the world in the tropics. Species 150. 
Stamens about 12. 
Leaves short-petioled, rounded at the base . . . . 1. D. tessellaria. 
Leaves long-petioled, cuneate at the base .... 2. D. chrysophyllob. 
Stamens 20-40. 
Leaves subsessile, cordate at the base 3. D. leucomelab. 
Leaves petioled, rounded at the base. 
Leaves glabrous beneath. 
Lobes of fruit-calyx erect, not winged. 
Leaves large (2-6 in. long) uniform. 
Calyx-lobes very short 4. D. mauritiana. 
Calyx-lobes £ as long as the tube . . . 5 . D. nodosa. 
Leaves small (1|— 2 in. long) varying from 
oblong to narrow linear 6. D. diversifolia. 
Lobes of fruit-calyx with an erect crisped wing . 7. D. melanida. 
Leaves persistently silky beneath * D. discolor. 
1. D. tessellaria, Poir. ; Hiern , Mon. 176. A shrub or low tree, 
with nearly straight glabrous branches. Leaves short-petioled, oblong, 
obtuse, rigidly coriaceous, 3-6 in. long, broadly rounded at the base, 
with all the little venules beneath distinctly raised so as to make a very 
fine network. Flowers in copious sessile clusters from the nodes of 
young branches ; bracts small, ovate-navicular. Flower-calyx £ in. 
long and broad, shortly 4-lobed, densely clothed with brown silky 
pubescence. Corolla with a ventricose tube as long as the calyx 
and 4 round spreading lobes silky on the outside. Stamens about 
12, glabrous, hypogynous. Fruit-calyx \ in. broad, quite flat, the 
lobes reaching halfway down. Fruit broad-oblong, edible, glabrescent, 
li-lj in. long. D. reticulata, Willd. ; A. DC. Prod, viii 225. D. 
Fbenum, Bojer , Hort. Mam. 199, non Betz. 
Mauritius, in the woods of La Savanne, Yacquois, Quartier Militaire, and Cent 
Gaulettes. Endemic. Bois d’ebdne noir. 
2. D. chrysophyllos, Poir ; Mierny Mon. 180. A small tree, with 
glabrous very zigzag slender branchlets. Leaves oblong or oblong- 
lanceolate, glossy, green above, coriaceous, subacute, deltoid at the 
base, 3-5 in. long, only the distant branching main veins beneath 
raised ; petiole \-l in, long. Flowers 1^, sessile in the axils of the 
leaves. Flower-calyx i in. long, tomentose, with 5 short erect lobes. 
Stamens 12-15. Fruit-calyx glabrescent, plate-shaped, under an 
inch broad. Fruit nearly globose, pulpy, above an inch long, 7-10- 
celled. 
Mauritius, in the forests of Flacq, Nouvelle Decouverte, and the Pouce range. 
Endemic. Bois d'ebene blanc. 
