IN CEYLON. 
3 
In 1753 Linnæus* * * § described five species of the Ebenaceæ, 
two of which belonged to the genus Diospyros. New species 
and genera were subsequently described by Linnæus, f C. 
Linnæus, f and Loureiro,§ and others were figured and 
described by Roxburgh] and König in 1795. It was not 
until 1799 that the natural order Ebenaceæ was established 
by Yentenat ;1T subsequently it received considerable atten¬ 
tion, many species and genera being quickly added from 
Mauritius by Poiret,** * * §§ from Australia by Brown,ft from Java 
by Blume, from India by Wallichjf and from the Philip¬ 
pines by Blanco.§§ 
The Ebenaceæ of Yentenat, revised by Jussieu,|||| had by 
this time greatly enlarged, and the necessity for a further 
revision was obvious ; accordingly, G. Bond’ll undertook this 
work and gave a description of every species known to him. 
This was speedily followed by more collecting, and finally 
A. de Candolle*** wrote a monograph on the whole of the 
Ebenaceæ. Having formed some definite ideas as to the 
external morphology of the Ebenaceæ, many botanists of 
that period turned their attention to the possible affinities 
of the order, and in 1845 we have the first fossil species 
described by Braun, and subsequent contributions on fossil 
species by Unger, Ettingshausen, Zollinger, and others. 
The phylogeny of the order was discussed by Miersfff and 
Choisy,Jff the former proposing that the Ebenaceæ be 
* Linnæus, Species Plantarum, 1753. 
f Linnæus, 13th Edition of Systema, 1774. 
J C. Linnæus in Supp. Spec. Pit., 1781. 
§ Loureiro, Flora Cochinchinensis, 1790. 
|| Roxburgh, Coromandel Plants, 1795-1819. 
Yentenat, Tableau du Regne Végétal, 1799. 
** Poiret, Encyclopédie méthodique, 1804. 
ff Brown, Prodomus floræ novæ Hollandiæ, 1810. 
JJ Wallich, East Indian Plants, 1828, 32. 
§§ Blanco, Flora de Filipinos, 1837. 
U II Jussieu, Ann. du Museum, Vol. V., 1804. 
ira G. Don, General System of Gardening and Botany, Vol. IV., 1837. 
*** Alph. de Candolle, Prodr. Syst. Nat. Regni Veget., Vol. VIII., 1844. 
ttf Miers, Contributions to Botany, Vol. I., p. 24. 1851. 
JJ J Choisy. Mémoires des Ternstrœmiaceæ, p. 9, 1855. 
