IN CEYLON. 
179 
This species is abundant in Peninsular India. 
Oiospyros hirsute, Linn. fil. Suppl., p. 440 (1781). 
Thw. Enum. Ceyl. PL, p. 181. n. 15 (1860). Alph. DC. Prodr. 
Y III., p. 223, n. 5 (1844). Bedd. Icon. PI. Ind. Or. 1871. 
Hiern, Mon. Eben. 163. 0. P. 382. Fl. B. Ind. III., 565. 
Hiern, p. 163-164, includes D. Moonii, Thw. andD. Thwaitesii 
Bedd., as varieties of D. hirsuta, L., but for reasons given 
this grouping cannot be maintained. 
A small or moderate-sized tree, evergreen, dioecious, 
monoecious, and polygamous ; bark black with narrow irreg¬ 
ular grooves and ridges ; branches pubescent when young, 
often groups of stiff brown hairs occurring in local areas on 
young twigs (cf. D. Thwaitesii) 
Leaves alternate, 90-200 mm. long, 30-60 mm. wide, ovate- 
lanceolate, tapering apex, obtuse or acute, tapering base ; 
young leaves densely pubescent, hairs persisting on under¬ 
surface, lateral veins and midrib ; sub-coriaceous, pale green 
below, venation reticulate ; petiole 8-11 mm. long. 
Flowers March-October ; ripe fruits March-August. 
The polygamous condition is very frequent as a result of 
the fertility of the pistil in male flowers ; the hermaphrodite 
flowers occur in any cluster, and consequent on the ripening 
of the fruit the unisexual flowers become detached leaving 
only one or two fruiting specimens out of a many-flowered 
cluster. A single twig or herbarium specimen may there¬ 
fore appear to be female only. 
The monoecious condition has been observed by Thwaites. 
I have confirmed this in material obtained from Potgulkanda 
near Ratnapura. The same inflorescence possesses male and 
female flowers, the former with rudimentary pistil and the 
latter with barren staminodes. (See. pi. XV., fig. 9). 
# The male inflorescence consists of dense axillary cymes, 
sometimes short, at other times drawn out to a length of 20 
mm. All theflowersare sessile or subsessile, but an opposite 
pair of small pubescent bracteoles occurs at the base of each 
flower suggesting a suppressed dichasiai cyme. 
