Parinarium
(from Parinari, the native name of the plant in Brazil). SYNS. Balantium, Exitelia, Lepidocarya, Maranthes, Petrocarya. ORD. Rosaceoe. A genus comprising about thirty-three species of stove shrubs or trees, often tall, natives of the Indian Archipelago, North Australia, the Pacific Islands, tropical Africa, Brazil, and Guiana; one has been discovered in the Trinity Islands, and another in South Africa. Flowers white or pink, paniculate or racemosely corymbose, bibracteolate, hermaphrodite; calyx with a short or elongated tube, and five sub-equal, imbricated lobes; petals five, rarely four, inserted at the mouth of the calyx, sessile or unguiculate, deciduous. Fruit ovoid or spherical, sometimes edible. Leaves alternate, persistent, very frequently thick and coriaceous, eglandulose or biglandulose at the apex, entire; stipules subulate or lanceolate. Few of the species are known to cultivation. For culture of those described below, see Chrysobalanus. P. excelsum (tall). Guinea Plum. fl. white, in panicled racemes. February. fr. about the size of "Imperatrice" plums, with a coarse skin of a greyish colour; the pulp is dry and farinaceous, and, owing to the size of the stone, is small in bulk. l. oblong, coriaceous, deep green above, white with pubescence beneath. Guinea, 1822. A large tree. This species is the "Grey" or "Rough-skinned Plum" of Sierra Leone.
P. macrophyllum (large-leaved). Gingerbread Plum. fl. white, in terminal racemes. February. fr. oblong, twice the size of that of the preceding species, which it much resembles in flavour and appearance. l. large, ovate, sessile, and cordate, green above and downy beneath. Stems thickly beset with brown hairs. Guinea, 1822. Shrub or small tree.