a glabrous shrub of 1–10 ft. high or a tree of moderate size up to 30 ft. high, densely branched; branches erect or ascending, terete, alternate or opposite; branchlets more or less spreading, opposite or alternate, leafy, minutely glandular towards the apex; bark whitish-grey, somewhat rough; leaves opposite and alternate, evergreen, obovate or oblanceolate, rounded or obtusely narrowed at the apex, wedge-shaped at the base, coriaceous, strongly wavy along the margin or when narrow nearly flat, entire, green above, pallid beneath, glabrous, minutely gland-dotted, 1/2–1 1/2 in. long, 1/5– 3/5 in. broad, narrower in the variety; lateral veins not very conspicuous, numerous; petioles 1/25– 1/10 in. long; racemes axillary; bracts deciduous, occasionally large and foliaceous; flowers diœcious, tetramerous. Male flowers hemispherical, nearly glabrous, 1/10 in. long; racemes lax, 5–7-flowered, 2/5– 4/5 in. long; pedicels slender, 1/10– 1/4 in. long; calyx broadly cup-shaped, short, cleft half-way down; lobes deltoid and pointed; corolla cleft more than half-way down; lobes oval; stamens 10–15, mostly in pairs; filaments slender, 1/100– 1/50 in. long; anthers oblong or obovate-oblong, apiculate, 1/20– 1/16 in. long, with a few hairs towards the apex; ovary rudimentary, hairy; styles 2. Female flowers campanulate, 3/40– 1/10 in. long, nearly glabrous; racemes 3–8-flowered, suberect in flower, drooping in fruit, 1/4– 1/2 in. long; pedicels mostly opposite, more or less patent in open flower and fruit, 3/40– 1/10 in. long; bracteoles narrow, small, deciduous; calyx campanulate, cleft scarcely half-way down, 1/30 in. long, not accrescent; lobes deltoid; corolla deeply cleft; segments oblong, more or less recurved near the apex, pale chestnut colour; staminodes 0; ovary ovoid, 2–4-celled, 1/25 in. long, 1/30 in. in diam., glabrous above, with some short whitish slender hairs around the base; ovules 4, oblong; styles 2, united at the base, 1/20 in. long, glabrous; stigmas 2, bifid at the apex; fruit globose, purple or red, or at length black, glabrous, edible, 1/6– 1/5 in. in diam., 1- or 2-celled, at length 1-celled and 1-seeded; seed 1/6 in. in diam.; albumen equable. null
