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sippi Valley States to the Rio Grande (Eagle Pass). Known variously as ‘‘gum elas- 
tic” and “shittim wood.” Insouthern Texas and adjacent Mexico is var. RIGIDA Gray, 
which is more spiny, with coriaceous leaves little over 2.5 cm. long and from obovate to 
cuneate-oblanceolate. (2B. spinosa Wats., not DC.) 
2. B. lycioides Pers. Spiny, 3 to 12m. high: leaves wedge-oblong varying to 
oval-lanceolate, with a tapering base, often acute, reticulated, nearly glabrous, 2.5 
to 5cm. long: clusters densely many-flowered, glabrous: fruit 6 to 10mm. long, 
short-ovoid.—Extending from the Gulf States to the Lower Rio Grande and the Con- 
cho River. Known as “iron-wood” and “southern buckthorn.” ‘Called ‘coma’ 
by the Mexicans on the Lower Rio Grande where it becomes a tree with stem a foot 
thick. Wood tough and compact, making excellent axe handles. The black berries 
are edible but not very palatable” (Havard.) 
3. B. angustifolia Nutt. Glabrous throughout, rarely over 4 m. high: leaves 
from spatulate or linear-oblanceolate to broadly obovate-cuneate, very obtuse, fleshy- 
coriaceous, small, 1 to 3.5cm. long: clusters few to many-flowered: fruit 12 to 18mm. 
long, oblong-oval. (B. parvifolia Chapm., not A. DC. B.reclinata Torr., not Vent. 
B. cuneata Gray, not Swartz.)—Valley of the Lower Rio Grande. 
EBENACEH. (Esony FAMILY.) 
Trees or shrubs, with alternate entire leaves, polygamous regular 
flowers, calyx free from the 3 to 12-celled ovary, stamens 2 to 4 times as 
many as the lobes of the corolla (often in pairs before them and their 
anthers turned inward), 1 or 2 ovules suspended from summit of each 
cell, and fruit a several-celled berry. 
1. DIOSPYROS L. (DATE-PLUM. PERSIMMON.) 
Trees or shrubs, with diceciously polygamous flowers (fertile axillary 
and solitary, sterile smaller and often clustered), 4 to 6-lobed calyx, 4 to 
6-lobed corolla, mostly 16 stamens in sterile flowers and 8 (imperfect ones) 
in fertile, and a large globular 4 to 8-celled 4 to 8-seeded berry sur- 
rounded at base by the thickish calyx. 
1. D. VirginianaL. (COMMON PERSIMMON.) ‘Tree 6 to 20 m. high (exceptionally 
30 to 35 m.), with very hard blackish wood: leaves thickish, ovate-oblong, smooth or 
nearly so: peduncles very short: calyx 4-parted: corolla pale yellow, thickish, glab- 
brous, between bell-shaped and urn-shaped (12 to 16 mm, long in fertile flowers, 
much smaller in sterile): styles 4, two-lobed at apex: plum-like fruit 2.5 em. in di- 
ameter, yellow when ripe.—A common tree of the Atlantic States, extending into 
Texas to the valley of the Colorado. The fruit, exceedingly astringent when green, 
yellow and luscious when ripe, is well known. 
2. D. Texana Scheele. (MEXICAN PERSIMMON.) Shrub or tree, 3 to 10 m. high, 
widely much branched and with heavy white wood: leaves cuneate-oblong or obo- 
vate, rounded at apex, almost sessile, tomentose (as also the branchlets): flowers 
silky-tomentose outside: calyx 5 or 6-parted: fruit globose, black, luscious (ripe in 
August.)—Woods along streams, Matagorda Bay to the Concho River and southward. 
The “chapote” of the Mexicans; also known as “ black persimmon.” ‘‘ Often found 
on rocky mesas but thrives best in cafions and on the edges of ravines. The black 
globose fruit, smaller than its congener of the Eastern States, is about as astringent 
when green and as sweet when ripe. Stains black everything it touches, and Mex- 
icans use it to dye sheep skins by boiling.” (Havard.) 
