THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



363 



country, sceiu to have bcon made through nurseries whieli could only 

 furnish local varieties under local names. Accordingly, many varieties 

 mentioned in the early reports are of inferior quality, and not known 

 even in Japan in commercial planting and some of them are given 

 entirely wrong names. The difficulty of entangled nomenclature lias 

 been greatly increased by recent importations of grafted trees through 

 nurseries, which under the present conditions can never guarantee them 

 for the variety. Considerable money is being expended every year on 

 these unreliable trees and worthless varieties. 



•Of those grown in this state there are among the astringent varieties, 

 the so-called Hachiya, Tanenashi, Yemon and some others of minor 

 importance, and among the sweet varieties, Hyakume and Gosho. 

 Fuyu has also been recently imported. The commercial planting in 

 California is still based largely on astringent varieties, simply on 

 account of lack of knowledge regarding the merit of the best sweet 

 varieties. Astringent varieties should undergo some artificial process, 

 which greatly impairs the keeping quality, or should be stored until 



Fig. 122 — The Hanagosho persimmon. (Original.) 



soft in order to be fit for use; while some of the best sweet varieties 

 may be kept after they are picked for three to four months if properly 

 handled, and then shipped thousands of miles and arrive in good con- 

 dition and ready for use. ^loreover they are brighter in color and far 

 better in flavor than astringent varieties, at the same time being 

 thrifty growers and heavy bearers. "Why should not, then, choice sweet 

 varieties be the standard of commercial planting? 



Considering the quality of the fruit, thriftiness and bearing habit of 

 the tree, the writer is inclined to recommend the following varieties for 

 commercial planting: Among sweet varieties, Jiro, Hanagosho, Fu;\ai, 

 Tenjingosho, and possibly Gosho, Shogatsu, and a few others. Among 

 astringent series. Yokono, Hachiya (Dojo-Hachiyo), Fuji, and probably 

 Yemon, Saijo, Giombo, INIino, and a few others. Descriptions of only 

 the very best may be given here. The name Gosho stands for a variety 

 which originated at the village of Gosho. Thus the ending attached 

 to persimmon names may indicate their origin and type. Gosho is 

 roughly equivalent to the term "pippin" in American apple nomen- 

 clature. 



