The drawing was taken in Mr. Kent’s hothouse at Clap- 
ton, where the plant has now flowered, as we understand, 
for the first time in this country; though introduced in 1796 
by Mr. Peter Good. 
« A middle-sized tree, growing in India in the moist 
vallies among the mountains of the Circars; where it does 
not shed its foliage; and flowers in March and April. The 
fruit is eaten by the natives, but I cannot say that it is pa- 
latable : it is strongly astringent.” 
“ Trunk straight, upright: bark pretty smooth, dark, 
blackish rust-colour; branches spreading, scattered, young 
shoots smooth. Leaves alternate, short-petioled, bifarious, 
linear-oblong, pointed, smooth, firm, shining, when young 
soft and red; six inches long by two broad: stipule single, 
sheathed, bursting and falling off when the leaf begins to 
expand. BARREN-TREE. Peduncle axillary, single, 
bowed, bearing 3, 4, or more small white flowers: bractes 
small, deciduous, one below each pedicle. Filaments about 
20, bifid at the point: anthers about 40, linear, erect. 
FERTILE-TREE. Peduncle axillary, single, undivided, 
bearing one white flower, which is considerably larger than 
the barren ones. Jilaments 1, 2, 3 or 4, small, short: an- 
thers linear, small, sterile. Germen globular: styles 4, 
spreading: stigmas branched, generally 3-cleft. Berry glo- 
bular, the size of a middling apple, pulpy, rusty-yellow when 
ripe and covered with a rust-coloured farina: seeds 8, 
which generally all ripen, immersed in pulp, kidney-form, 
edge thin.” Roxburgh. 
Dr. Roxburgh, speaking of the true Ebony (Diospyros 
Ebenum), remarks that it is only the heart of the tree that 
is black and valuable, and that the quantity is in proportion 
to the age of the tree. The outside is white and soft and 
soon decays. 
Geertner mistook the bottom for the top in his figure 
and description of the fruit of Embryopterts. 
