SUBORDER DIOSPYRINEAE
[FAMILY 194.] HOPLESTIGMATACEAE
Trees. Leaves alternate, undivided, without stipules. Flowers in terminal panicles. Calyx closed in the bud, subsequently cleft into 2-4 lobes. Corolla with a short tube and 11-14 imbricate segments. Stamens 23-34, inserted in the tube of the corolla. Anthers opening lengthwise. Ovary 1-celled with 2 much projecting placentas. Ovules 4, pendulous inverted. Styles 2, united at the base, with roundish stigmas. Fruit a drupe with 2 empty cavities. Seeds with a large embryo and scanty albumen. (Under FLACOURTIACEAE.)
Genus 1, species 2. Equatorial West Africa. Hoplestigma Pierre
[FAMILY 195.] EBENACEAE
Trees or shrubs. Leaves entire, without stipules. Flowers solitary or in cymes in the leaf-axils, regular. Petals united below, with contorted, rarely valvate aestivation. Stamens as many as the petals and opposite to them, or more numerous, inserted at the base of the corolla-tube. Filaments free or united in bundles. Anthers basifixed, 2-celled. Ovary superior, sessile, 2-16-celled. Ovules 1-2 in each cell, pendulous, inverted. Styles 2-8, free or united at the base. Seeds with a copious, cartilaginous albumen and an axile embryo.—Genera 6, species 150. Tropical and South Africa. (Plate 125.)
1. Corolla with valvate aestivation. Stamens about 30. Flowers 4-merous, dioecious, the male in cymes, the female solitary.—Species 1. Madagascar. Tetraclis Hiern
Corolla with contorted aestivation. 2
2. Stamens 2-3, with hairy filaments and linear anthers. Corolla 3-4-lobed.
Flowers dioecious. Fruit oblong or ovoid. Leaves oblique at the base.—Species 1. West Africa. Rhaphidanthe Hiern
Stamens 4 or more, very rarely 3, but then filaments glabrous and anthers oblong or lanceolate. 3
3. Stamens in a single row, 4-14, usually 10. Flowers usually hermaphrodite,
5-, rarely 4-, 6-, or 7-merous. Ovary 4-10-celled with 1 ovule in each cell. Pericarp leathery.—Species 20. South and Central
Africa. Some species yield timber. Royena L.
Stamens in 2 or more rows, very rarely in a single row, but then only 3.
Flowers unisexual, rarely polygamous. Pericarp usually fleshy. 4
4. Ovary 3-celled with 2 ovules, or 6-celled with 1 ovule in each cell; in the latter case female flowers with staminodes. Flowers 3-merous, more rarely 4-6-merous. Stamens usually 9, glabrous. Leaves alternate.—Species
20. Tropical and South-east Africa. Some species yield timber, edible fruits, and medicaments. (Plate 125.) Maba Forst.
Ovary 4- or 8-16-celled, rarely 2- or 6-celled; in the latter case female flowers without staminodes. Flowers 4-7-, very rarely 3-merous.
Stamens usually 12-20. 5
EBENACEAE.
FLOW. PL. AFR.