Sonneratia
(named in honour of Pierre Sonnerat, 1749-1814, who travelled into New Guinea, the East Indies, and China, and communicated many new plants to the botanists of Europe). SYN. Aubletia. ORD. Lythrarieae. A genus comprising five or six species of highly glabrous, stove shrubs and small trees, inhabiting the tropical sea-shores of the Eastern hemisphere. Flowers ample, ebracteolate, in threes at the tips of the branchlets, or axillary and solitary; calyx thickly coriaceous, with a campanulate tube and a four to eight-lobed limb; petals four to eight, small, or wanting; stamens numerous. Berry sub-globose, ten to fifteen-celled, many-seeded. Leaves opposite, petiolate, coriaceous, oblong, acute or obtuse, entire. The three species known to cultivation require similar treatment to that advised for Lager-stromia.
S. acida (acid). fl. six-cleft; petals red. June. fr. having acrid pulp. l. oval-oblong. Branchlets tetragonal. East Indies, 1822. A small tree. The fruits of this species are eaten as a condiment by the Malays. S. alba (white-flowered). fl. white, six to eight-cleft, apetalous. May. fr. obconical at base, depressed above. l. roundish-oval, 2in. to 4 1/2in. long, rounded or retuse at the apex. Branchlets terete. East Indies, 1824. A small tree.
A. apetala (apetalous). Kambala-tree. fl. white, four-cleft, apetalous. June. l. ovate-lanceolate. Branchlets terete, pendulous. East Indies, 1826. Tree attaining 40ft., growing in Mangrove swamps flooded by the tide.