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Tree, 4-17 m, rarely 30 m high, with whitish bark, smooth or fluted; ultimate twigs pale grey or whitish, more or less lenticellate, at least some of the upper internodes 4-angled. Leaves lanceolate-elliptic to elliptic, usually broadest about the middle and from there narrowing to an acute base and apex (apex sometimes rounded), 4-8 cm long, 0 • 8-3 • 3 cm broad, flat with just the marginal rim reflexed and often loosely undulate, minutely scaly, giving the appearance of being minutely pitted, especially on lower surface, midrib more or less impressed above, prominent below, lateral veins sometimes faintly obvious, then prominent above, anastomosing in large loops near the margins (loops not forming an almost straight line along the margin); petiole 4-10 mm long. Panicles axillary and quite frequently terminal too, many flowered but not dense and compact; branches slender, subterete, 4-angled or variously flattened and fluted, inter­nodes and peduncles relatively long, pedicels short; bracts up to 4 mm long, sub-deciduous. Calyx small, cupular and shortly 4-lobed, up to 1 mm long. Corolla white; tube 0 • 75 mm long; lobes about 2 • 25 mm long and 1 • 5 mm broad, forming a subglobose bud, eventually reflexed. Stamens with filaments inserted on the tube, free for about lmm, anthers 1 -5 mm long, 1-25 mm broad, more or less medifixed. Ovary subglobose; style very short; stigma 2-lobed conico-globose; ovules pendulous. Drupe drying blackish, semi-ovoid, narrowing to apex and oblique at base, usually about 1 cm long and 5 mm broad in dried specimens, occasionally slightly larger.