IB 
No. 40. 
Sideroxylon australe, Benth. et Hook. f. 
The Black Apple. 
(Natural Order SAPOTACE^E.) 
Botanical description.— Genus Sideroxylon, Linn. 
Calyx-lobes, corolla-lobes, stamens, and ovary cells 5, or rarely 6 or more, or the ovary cells in 
species not Australian twice as many. 
Scales (or staminodia).—In the throat of the corolla alternating with the lobes. 
Ovules. —Laterally attached. 
Seeds. —Solitary or few, rarely all perfect; testa hard, shining ; hilum lateral, linear or broad, 
about half as long as the seed ; albumen copious, fleshy ; cotyledons broad, flat, usually thin. 
Trees or shrubs, glabrous or tomentose. 
Flowers. —Sessile or pedicellate, clustered. 
Botanical description. —Species, S, australe, Benth. and Hook. f. Gen. Plant, ii, 
655. ( Acliras australis, R.Br. Prod. 530.) 
A tree attaining sometimes a great elevation, quite glabrous except a slight appressed pubescence 
on the very young shoots. 
Leaves. —Shortly petiolate, from elliptical-oblong and shortly and obtusely acuminate to broadly 
obovate-oblong and very obtuse, mostly 3 to 4 inches long, but sometimes larger, usually 
much reticulate. 
Flowers. —In axillary clusters or almost solitary on pedicels of 2 to 3 lines, more globular than in 
S. xerocarpa, and S. Richardi (A. lawrifolia). 
Calyx-segments. —5, broadly orbicular, about 2 lines diameter. 
Corolla. —Scarcely exceeding the calyx, the lobes short and spreading; scales of the throat 
slightly dilated upwards. 
Anthers. —On very short filaments near the base of the corolla-tube. 
Ovary. —Densely villous, tapering into a short glabrous style, 5-celled; ovules laterally attached 
near their base. 
Fruit. —1 inch diameter. 
Seeds. —Few, large, compressed, the hilum on the inner edge more than half as long as the seed, 
much broader than in S. xerocarpa , narrower than in S. Richardi. —(B.F1. iv, 282, as Ac liras.) 
Botanical Name. — Sideroxylon. From two Greek words, sideros iron, and 
xylon wood, owing to the hardness of the wood of the first species described ; 
australe, Latin, southern, and hence often Australian, 
