WRIGHT : THE GENUS DIOSPY 
The three species have therefore been described separately. 
Diospyros affinis, Thw. Enum. Ceyl. PL, p. 179, n - 6 
(1860). 
Kaluwella (Yiriniya), Semel Panachai, S. 
FI. B. Ind. III., 566. C. P. 2,924. Hiern, Mon. Eben. 169. 
Bedd. Ic. FI. Ind. Or. 1.127 (1871). 
A moderate-sized or large tree, evergreen, dioecious and 
polygamous; young twigs green and slightly pubescent, 
older twigs brown to black and shiny; bark of young branches 
thick, alternate longitudinal grey and black layers, 10 mm. 
wide and 40-80 mm. long. In old trees the grey layer 
becomes the fissure and the dark layer the ridge. The fissures 
becomes very large and characteristic of the bark. The bark 
peels away in irregular thick patches. 
Leaves alternate, 35-90 mm. long, 13-30 mm. wide, oval or 
oblong, tapering towards apex, apex obtuse, narrowed at 
base, glabrous, coriaceous; venation reticulate, meshes wide, 
not strongly pellucid, net veins rather prominent beneath ; 
petiole flattened above, 10 mm. long, 1-5 mm. diameter. 
Flowers in June-August; ripe fruits June-October. 
The polygamous condition is very frequent. At Yiriniya 
in June, 1902,1 obtained abundance of ripe fruit from poly¬ 
gamous trees of this species. The fruits were a trifle smaller 
than those obtained from true female trees. The herma¬ 
phrodite flowers only differ from the male flowers on the 
same tree in having larger calyces and a fertile pistil, 
the number and nature of stamens being the same. The 
hermaphrodite flower when occurring alone on a male cyme 
usually occupies the position of the median and oldest flower 
(cf. D. oppositifolia). In other cases the majority of the 
flowers of a particular cyme are hermaphrodite. (See pi. 
fig. 5). 
I have also found the polygamous condition on a tree in the 
Peradeniya Gardens in March, 1903; this particular tree had 
not been in flower for at least the last three years. 
