This plant grows in the Pacific Islands, Malay Peninsula, Ceylon, and Australia; and on account of its handsome scarlet fruit is cultivated as an ornament, as the fruit is not edible. The tree is a small evergreen, having alternate, glabrous, coriaceous leaves which are crowded at the ends of the stout branches. The small, white flowers have five petals. The fruit consists usually of two, rarely one, spreading scarlet drupes, each containing a large seed. The first specimen of its kind in Hawaii was planted at the Government Nursery, Honolulu, where it is still growing.