Diospyros. EBENACE.E. 69 



lets, pedicels in axillary fascicles, corolla immersed or nearly so iu the double 



calyx, and a plum-like edible fruit. 



M. Sieberi, A. DC. Tree 30 feet high: leaves elliptical-oblong or inclining to obovate, 

 refuse, glabrous and green both sides (2 to 4 inches long), slender-petioied; midrib stout : 

 fascicles several-flowered: corolla whitish, G-parted; its slender appendages 12: staminodia 

 short, triangular, nearly entire : fruit the size of a pigeon's egg, brownish or yellowish 

 when ripe, pleasant. Prodr. viii. 204; Chapm. Fl. 275. M. dissecta, Griseb. 1. c., as to 

 W. Ind. pi. Achras mammosa, Sieber, Coll., not L. A. Zupotilla, var. parviflora, Nutt. Sylv. 

 iii. 28, t. 90. Key West, Florida, Blodgett, Palmer. Said to be common ; probably indi- 

 genous. (W. Ind.) 

 ACHRAS SAPOTA, L., the SAPPADILLA or NASEBEKRY of the West Indies and Central 



America (for a variety of which Nuttall mistook the above tree), appears not to have 



reached Florida. 



ORDER LXXXIV. EBENACE.E. 



Trees or shrubs, with limpid juice, alternate entire leaves, and dioaciotis or 

 polygamous (rarely completely hermaphrodite) regular flowers ; the staminate 

 with at least twice or thrice as many stamens as there are lobes to the short gamo- 

 petalous hypogynous corolla (usually convolute in the bud), and inserted on its 

 tube or base, their anthers introrse ; the pistillate flowers mostly with some im- 

 perfect stamens ; the several-celled ovary with one or two anatropous ovules 

 suspended from the summit of each cell ; the fruit a berry, maturing one or more 

 large and bony-coated seeds. These have a cartilaginous albumen, and a rather 

 small straight embryo, with foliaceous cotyledons and a mostly slender radicle. 

 Calyx persistent, often foliaceous and accrescent. Filaments short. Hypogynous 

 disk wanting. Styles as many or half as many as the cells of the ovary, 2 to 8, 

 distinct or partly united : stigmas sometimes 2-parted. Stipules none. Flowers 

 axillary, articulated with the pedicels. Wood very hard ; that of several species 

 of Diospyros furnishes ebony.-- Iliern, Mon. Eben. in Trans. Cambr. Phil. Soc. 

 xii. part i. A small order, of warm regions, nearly two thirds of the species 

 belonging to the following genus. 



1. DIOSPYROS, L. DATE-PLUJI, PERSIMMON, (z/wc, nv Q 6^ Jove's 

 grain.) Calyx 4-5-lobed, enlarging under the fruit. Corolla campanulate, short- 

 sal verform or urceolate. Ovary 4 12-celled ; a pair of ovules in each cell. Be'rry 

 maturing only 4 to 8 oblong bony flattened seeds. Flowers essentially dioecious ; 

 but the fertile flowers (commonly solitary in the axils) may have sterile stamens 

 more or less polliniferous ; the sterile flowers much smaller, usually racemose or 

 clustered, and with more numerous stamens. A large genus, widely dispersed, 

 but the greater portion Asiatic : fruit edible. 



D. Virginiana, L. (COMMON PERSIMMON.) Tree 20 to 70 feet high, with a rough bark : 

 leaves thickish-membranaceous, more or less pubescent when young, commonly soon 

 glabrate, oval (2 to 5 inches long) : sterile flowers in threes : calyx 4-parted : corolla 

 4-lobed, greenish-yellow, thickish, glabrous : stamens 16, in pairs, somewhat pubescent ; 

 the sterile ones of the fertile flowers 8 : styles 4, 2-lobed at apex : ovary 8-celled, nearly 

 glabrous : fruit plum-like, an inch in diameter, excessively astringent when green, yellow 

 when ripe, and when frosted sweet and luscious. Gaertn. f. Carp. Suppl. t. 207; Michx. 

 f. Sylv. ii. t. 93 (Catesb. Car. ii. t. 76). D. concolor, Moench. D. pubesccns, Pursh, Fl. 

 i. 265 (var. microcarpa, Raf. Med. Fl.). Woods and fields, Rhode Island ? and New York 

 near the coast, also from Ohio to Iowa, and south to Florida and Louisiana : fl. early 

 summer: fr. Oct. (Too near the N. Asiatic D. Lotus, L.) 



