Ebenaceae
A natural order of trees or shrubs, containing about six genera and some 250 species, natives, for the most part, of warm regions. Flowers hermaphrodite, or staminate and pistillate; calyx three to seven-cleft, persistent; corolla three to seven-cleft. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, entire, coriaceous, exstipulate. Some of the trees of this order furnish valuable timber, the heart-wood of several species constituting the ebony of commerce. The best-known genera are: Diospyros, Euclea, Maba, Royena, and Tetraclis.