Diospyros. EBENACE.^. 69 



lets, pedicels in axillary fascicles, corolla immersed or nearly so iu the double 



calyx, and a plum-like edible fruit. 



M. Sieberi, A. DC. Tree 30 feet high: leaves elliptical-oblong or inclining to obovate, 

 retuse, glabrous and green both sides (2 to 4 inches long), slender-petioled; midrib stout : 

 fascicles several-flowered: corolla whitish, G-parted; its slender appendages 12: staniinodia 

 short, triangular, nearly entire : fruit the size of a pigeon's egg, brownish or yellowish 

 when ripe, pleasant. — Prodr. viii. 204; Cliapm. Fl. 275. M. dissecta, Gv'i&ch. 1. c, as to 

 W. Ind. pi. Achras mammosa, Sieber, Coll., not L. ^1. ZapotiUa, var. parvijlora, Nutt. Sylv. 

 iii. 28, t. 90. — Key West, Florida, Blochjett, Palmer. Said to be common ; probably indi- 

 genous. (W. Ind.) 

 AciiRAS Sapota, L., the Sappadilla or Nasebekry of the West Indies and Central 



America (for a variety of which Nuttall mistook the above tree), appears not to have 



reached Florida. 



Order LXXXIV. EBENACE^. 



Trees or shrubs, with limpid juice, alternate entire leaves, and dioecious or 

 polygamous (rarely completely hermaphrodite) regular flowers ; the staminate 

 with at least twice or thrice as many stamens as there are lobes to the short gamo- 

 petalous hypogynous corolla (usually convolute in the bud), and inserted on its 

 tube or base, their anthers introrse ; the pistillate flowers mostly with some im- 

 perfect stamens ; the several-celled ovary with one or two anatropous ovules 

 suspended from the summit of each cell ; the fruit a berry, maturing one or more 

 large and bony-coated seeds. These have a cartilaginous albumen, and a rather 

 small straight embryo, with foliaceous cotyledons and a mostly slender radicle. 

 Calyx persistent, often foliaceous and accrescent. Filaments short. Ilypogynous 

 disk wanting. Styles as many or half as many as the cells of the ovary, 2 to 8, 

 distinct or pai'tly united : stigmas sometimes 2-parted. Stipules none. Flowers 

 axillary, articulated with the pedicels. Wood very hard ; that of several species 

 of Diospyros furnishes ebony. — Iliern, Mon. P^ben. in Trans. Cambr. Phil. Soc. 

 xii. parti. — A small order, of warm regions, nearly two thirds of the species 

 belonging to the following genus. 



1. DIOSPYROS, L. Date-Plum, Persimmon. (.^/o,-, nvQog., Jove's 

 grain.) — Calyx 4-5-lobed, enlarging under the fruit. Corolla campanulate, short- 

 sal verform or urceolate. Ovary 4-12-celled ; a pair of ovules in each cell. Berry 

 maturing oidy 4 to 8 oblong bony flattened seeds. Flowers essentially dioecious ; 

 but the fertile flowers (commonly solitary in the axils) may have sterile stamens 

 more or less polliniferous ; the sterile flowers much smaller, usually racemose or 

 clustered, and with more numerous stamens. — A large genus, widely dispersed, 

 but the greater portion Asiatic : fruit edible. 



D. Virginiana, L. (Common Persimmon.) Tree 20 to 70 feet high, witli a rough bark : 

 leaves thickish-membranaceous, more or less pubescent when young, commonly soon 

 glabrate, oval (2 to 5 inches long): sterile flowers in threes: calyx 4-parted : corolla 

 4-lobed, greenisli-yellow, thickish, glabrous: stamens 1(5, in pairs, somewhat pubescent; 

 the sterile ones of the fertile flowers 8 : styles 4, 2-lobed at apex : ovary 8-celled, nearly 

 glabrous: fruit plum-like, an inch in diameter, excessively astringent when green, yellow 

 when ripe, and when frosted sweet and luscious. — Gajrtn. f. Carj). Suppl. t. 207; Michx. 

 f. Sylv. ii. t. 9.3 (Catesb. Car. ii. t. 76). D. concolor, Moencli. I), puba^cem, Pursh, Fl. 

 i. 265 (var. microcarpa, Eaf. Med. Fl.). — Woods and fields, Rliode Island ? and New York 

 near the coast, also from Ohio to Iowa, and south to Florida and Louisiana : fl. early 

 summer: fr. Oct. (Too near the N. Asiatic D. Lotus, L.) 



