Maba
(its native name in the Tonga Islands). Including Ferreola. ORD. Ebenaceae. A genus comprising fifty-nine species of (mostly) hard-wooded, stove, evergreen trees or shrubs, dispersed over the warmer regions of the globe. Flowers dioecious, rarely monoecious or polygamous, axillary, or at the nodes of the year-old or older branches, solitary or shortly cymose; calyx campanulate; corolla campanulate or tubular; lobes three, rarely four to six, contorted. Leaves alternate, often smaller than in Diospyros, rarely large. Mabas thrive in a peat and loam compost. Propagated, during May, by cuttings of half-ripened shoots, placed in sand, under a glass, and in a very gentle bottom heat. Probably the undermentioned are the only species introduced. M. buxifolia (Box-leaved). fl. yellowish, solitary or aggregate. l. obovate, glabrous in the adult state. h. 1 1/2ft. Tropical Asia and Africa, 1810. M. laurina (Laurel-like). fl. yellow, solitary. July. l. oval-oblong, veiny, bluntish at the base, shining. h. 3ft. Queensland, 1824.