D 



wspyros virgtniana^ 

 THE VIRGINIAN DATE PLUM OR, PERSIMON-TREE. 



Synonymes. 



Diospyros virginiana_ 



Plaquemiaier de Virginie, 



Virg:inische Dntielpflaume, 



Diospiro di Virginia, 



Virginian Date Plum-tree, Persiraon-tree, 



Engravings. Michaux, North American Sylva, pi. 93 

 Brilannicum, vi., pi. 200 el 201 ; and the figures below. 



LiNNjEDs, Species Plantarum. 



MiciiAUX, North American Sylva. 



Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum 



Fra.n'ce. 



Gf.k.vany. 



Italy. 



Britain and Anglo-America. 



Audubon, Birds of America, i., pi. Ixxxt.. , Louuor., &Tooiium 



Specific Characters. Leaver ovate-oblong, acuminated, glabrous, shining above, ;uid paler beneath, retic- 

 ulately veined. Petioles short and curved, and, as well as the branchlets, downy. Leaf buds glabrous 

 Flowers quadrifid, rarely quinquelid. Flowers pale-yellow. Don, Miller's Diet. 



Description. 



" If Fever's fervid rage 

 Glow'd in the boiling veins, with care they sought 

 The firm Uiospyros." 



Traits of the Aborioines 



HE Virginian Date Plum, 

 h H M, when erown under fa- 



LJ B 



vourable conditions, some- 



times attains a height of 



sixty or seventy feet, with a trunk eighteen or 

 twenty inches in diameter; but, under ordinary 

 circumstances, it does not usually exceed one 

 half of these dimensions. The trunk of a full- 

 grown tree is covered with a deeply-furrowed 

 blackish bark, from which exudes a greenish gum, 

 without taste or odour. This tree is readily dis- 

 tinguished from the European date plum, by its 

 leaves being nearly of the same shade of green 

 on both surfaces; while those of the latter are 

 of a dark purplish-green above, and much paler, 

 and furnished with a somewhat pinkish down beneath. Those of the Virginian 

 date plum are from four to six inches in length, oblong, entire, of a fine green 

 above, glaucous beneath, and often, in autumn, are variegated with black spots. 

 The terminal shoots are observed to be usually accompanied, at the base, by 

 small rounded leaves. This species belongs to that class of vegetables, the sexes 

 of which are confined to different trees. Both the barren and fertile flowers are 

 of a greenish-yellow, but not strikingly conspicuous. They put forth in June 

 and July, and are succeeded by a round fruit, about the size of a buUace plum, 

 of a reddish complexion, with a fleshy pulp, containing six or eight semi-oval 

 stones, slightly swollen at the sides, and of a dark -purple colour. The fruit is 

 not palatable till it has been softened by frost, when it becomes sweet, though 

 still astringent. In the southern states of the union it adheres to the branches 

 long after the leaves have dropped; and when it falls, it is eagerly devoured by 

 wild and domestic animals. 



