Genus DIOSPYROS, Linn. 



EbenaceoES. Polygamia DicBcia. 



Syst. Nat. Syst. Lin. 



Synonymcs. 



Diospyros, Ehenus, Guaiacaruif Of Authors. 



Plaqueminier, France. 



Dattelpflaume, Germany. 



Diospiro, Italt. 



Date Plum-tree, Britain and Anglo-America. 



Derivation. The word Diospyros is thought to be corrupted from the Greek Diospuros, (dios, divine, and puros, wheat,; a 

 name given by the ancients to the Lilhospermum officinale. Its application to the dale plum is supposed to have arisen by con- 

 founding the Greek puros, wheat, with the Latin pyrus, a pear-tree, to the fruit of which the date plum may have been thought 

 to bear some resemblance. 



Generic Characters. Flowers polygamous. Calyx deeply 4-cleft, sometimes 3 or 6-cleft. Corolla urceo 

 late, 4-cleft ; sometimes 3 or 6-cleft. IMale flowers having the stamens inserted by pairs into the base 

 of the corolla, twice the number of its segments, with double or twin filaments, ancf the rudiment of a 

 pistil. Hermaphrodite flowers having fewer and sterile stamens. Ovarium 8 12-celled : cells 1- 

 seeded. Berry globose, with a spreading calyx which is at length reflexed. Albumen horny. Bon, 

 Miller's Diet. 



^HE genus Diospyros embraces deciduous low trees, with white oi 

 pale-yellow flowers; natives of Europe, Northern Africa, West- 

 ern Asia, ihe islands of the Indian Archipelago, and INorth Amer- 

 ica. The only hardy species cultivated to much extent in Europe 

 or America, are the European lotus, (Diospyros lotus,) and the 

 Virginian date plum, or persimon (Diospyros virginiana.) The 

 former grows to twenty or thirty feet, or more, in height, and is characterized by 

 the beautiful dark, glossy green of the upper sides of its leaves, which, when 

 mature and exposed to the air, assume a purplish hue beneath. Its fruit is some- 

 times brought to the market at Constantinople, under the name of Tarabresan 

 Ciirmasi ; and in that part of Europe, it appears to grow much larger than either 

 in Britain or in Italy, being nearly of the size of a walnut; it is austere, however, 

 and unfit for the table, unless made into a conserve. 



Nearly allied to the same natural family are the iron- wood argania, (Argania 

 sideroxylon,) a native of Morocco, and several species of bumclia, natives of the 

 southern states of the American union. 



