102 
WRIGHT : THE GENUS DIOSPYROS 
of this species possesses eight epipetalous staminodes 
arranged opposite to and alternate with the corolla segments. 
In the male flowers the number of stamens is large, there 
being from twelve to sixteen in each flower. When sixteen 
in number they are usually as eight pairs, the members of 
each pair being united at the base of the filaments and having 
the inner stamen smaller than the outer. When only 
twelve stamens occur these are often arranged as four pairs 
and four single. 
In each case, whether there are sixteen or twelve, they 
always form an epipetalous series of eight, each pair being 
either opposite to or alternate with the corolla segments. 
The inner stamens are always small, and by their abortion a 
series of eight would result. This condition, which prevails 
in many flowers, may represent the transition of the 
staminal whorl of the female flowers, in which case it would 
be easy to derive both sexes from a common hermaphrodite 
flower having a large number of stamens. Such a herma¬ 
phrodite flower does exist at the present time in those trees 
showing the polygamous condition. In the hermaphrodite 
flowers there may be as many as sixteen perfect stamens 
arranged as a monadelphous hypogynous ring, or arranged 
part epipetalous at the base of the corolla and part hypogy¬ 
nous. The parts of the pistil and also the seeds of polygam¬ 
ous flowers resemble those of true female flowers. If we 
assume that the primitive type of flower was hermaphrodite, 
then a very definite abortion in either of two directions 
must have taken place, some of the trees having, so to speak, 
allowed the pistil of every flower to entirely abort, while 
others reduced the number of stamens in each male flower 
and eventually suffered sterilization of the male sporogenous 
tissue. Other trees have undergone occasional sterilization 
of the pistil, resulting in the polygamous state so prevalent 
at the present time. 
The next most simple case in this group is seen in D. 
sylvatica. In this species the female flower possesses four 
epipetalous staminodes disposed so as to alternate with the 
