1921] SARGENT. NOTES ON NORTH AMERICAN TREES. XIII 169 



and more or less densely pubescent below, especially on the midrib and 

 petioles, and in the villose pubescence of the branchlets often persistent 

 for two or three years. 



The fruit of this variety, which is sometimes 4.5-7.5 cm. wide and 2.5 cm. 

 high is distinct in its yellow skin and in the flesh wliich becomes succulent 

 and edible without the action of frost. In what may be considered the type 

 of the variety from Cotter, Dexter County, Arkansas (Palmer, No. 5968), 

 the leaves are oblong-ovate, abruptly pointed and acuminate at apex, 

 rounded or slightly cordate at base, covered above with short caducous 

 white hairs, and villose-pubescent on the midrib and veins on the other- 

 wise nearly glabrous lower surface, 7-10 cm. long and 5-6 cm. wide, 

 those on vigorous shoots up to 15 cm. in length and 8 cm. in width; peti- 

 oles stout, densely villose-pubescent, 1.5-2 cm. long; fruit depressed- 

 globose, 4-7.5 cm. broad and 2.5 cm. high, with a yellow skin and sw^eet 

 succulent flesh; seeds more conspicuously rounded on the dorsal side, 

 much flattened, dark chestnut-brown, very lustrous, only slightly rugose, 

 1.5 cm. long and 1.2 cm. w^ide, branchlets densely pubescent when tlicy 

 first appear, becoming gUibrate. 



About this variety Mr. E. J. Palmer writes: **I have been much in- 

 terested in the variations of the Persimmon in foliage and fruit, and 

 extreme forms certainly look very distinct. The country people gener- 

 ally throughout the western Ozark region recognize two fruit forms and 

 insist that they are very different from each other. While there is a 

 wide variation in fruit as to size, shape and time of ripening throughout 

 its range, the extreme form, w^ith very large much flattened fruit, ripen- 

 ing from the middle of September to early October and with flesh very 

 soft and succulent, seems to be commonest if not limited to the western 

 slopes of the Ozarks and the adjacent prairie region in southwest Mis- 

 souri, northwest Arkansas, southeast Kansas and northeast Oklahoma, 

 at least I do not remember having seen it beyond this region. I have 

 seen fruit of this fully three inches in transverse diameter and much 

 flattened at both poles. The fruit is often so soft that in falling to the 

 ground it is crushed or completely squashed when fully rii>e. This large 

 fruit is usually associated with large more or less pubescent leaves often 

 cordate at base and turning bright yeflow in early autumn. The largest 

 fruit that I have ever seen was on a tree at Cotter, Arkansas, of which 

 I think I sent you fruit in 1914. This w^as fully as large as some of the 

 cultivated Japanese varieties. My observation on the large-fruited form 

 is that it is usually a small tree seldom more than 4-8 m. tall and never 

 attaining the size of trunk and height of the small-fruited variety. The 

 fruit of the latter is seldom edible until after frost, and in some extreme 

 forms scarcely becomes so at any time. While there is much variation 

 and possibly a complete gradation between the two forms, the latter 

 often has fruit of an oblong shape or longer than w ide. The skin is tougher 

 and the flesh more fibrous, and the fruit often candies on the tree, some- 

 times remaining on all winter." 



