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SujJLIBRARYU 



SOME ANCESTORS OF THE PERSIMMON 



EDWARD W. BERRY 

 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 



The Ebony family or Ebenaceae of the order Ebenales is com- 

 paratively large, with upwards of three hundred different species 

 distributed among five or six genera, more than half of them being 

 referable to the genus Diospyros to which our common eastern 

 form belongs. The name Diospyros is derived from the Greek and 

 means God or life-giving or heavenly. Its selection for these par- 

 ticular plants required the same type of imagination which gave 

 to our common clams the name Venus, and which saw the mythical 

 shapes embodied in the constellations. Most of my readers are 

 familiar with our American persimmon or " Possum wood" and 

 not a few will recall the extremely astringent taste of its unripe 

 fruits. Many are also familiar with the large edible persimmons 

 of China and Japan which are now often cultivated in our extreme 

 southern states. Persimmon wood is hard and strong and is 

 used to a considerable extent in the manufacture of bobbins and 

 similar articles. This quality of hardness and fineness of grain runs 

 through the whole family and the bulk of the ebony of commerce 

 is derived from various species of Diospyros. According to the 

 writer of the book of Ezekiel, ebony was one of the articles of 

 merchandise of the Phoenicians and the ancients esteemed it even 

 more than we do at the present time. Virgil and Pliny mention 

 it as a product of India and Herodotus relates that it was one of 

 the articles of tribute in the days of the Persian empire. Natur- 

 ally a wood which has been utilized for so long, a wood so fine- 

 grained, hard, and heavy, and susceptible of such a high polish, 

 was thought to possess many mystic virtues. It was used for 

 making scepters, images and drinking cups because of its supposed 

 antagonism to poison. Pausanius relates that the ebony tree 

 produced neither leaves or fruit, nor was ever seen exposed to the 

 sun. 



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