Hume: A Kaki Classification 



401 



A SEEDLESS JAPANESE PERSIMMON. 



This variety (Zengi) belongs to the group of Pollination Variants. If pollina- 

 tion of the fruits is prevented, they yet develop normally, but the absence 

 of seed results in a light color of the flesh. (Fig. 6.) 



fully bagged flowers of D. kaki. The 

 natural conclusion is that partheno- 

 genesis does not occur in D. kaki and if 

 it does it is of such rare occurence under 

 conditions in the southern United States 

 as to have no practical bearing on the 

 problem. 



All varieties of D. kaki known in 

 America at this time are light fleshed 

 when seedless, while certain varieties 

 always show darkening of the flesh 

 when seeds are present and other varie- 

 ties are always light fleshed when seeds 

 are present. 



THE CLASSIFICATION. 



Based on the difference in flesh colora- 

 tion under influence of pollination, 

 Kaki may be divided into at least two 

 groups — first those which show no 

 change in color of flesh under the in- 

 fluence of pollination and second, those 

 in which the flesh of the fruit is darkened 

 under the influence of ]3ollination. 

 Since the change in color in the one 

 case is directly due to pollination and 

 in the other pollination has no effect 

 whatever, we shall refer to those varie- 

 ties which undergo no change in color 

 as Pollination Constants and those which 

 are light colored when seedless and dark 



2 Van Deman, H. E. The Kaki. The- First Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, 1889, 

 449-450. , , 



^ Hague, Stella M. A Morphological Studv of Diospxros viiginiana. Botanical Gazette 52: 34-44. 

 July, 1911. • 



mysterious things about the fruit of D. 

 kaki. It was noted long ago that the 

 fruits of certain va-'ieties when they con- 

 tained seeds were different^ in color of 

 flesh from the seedless specimens, and 

 in the case of certain other varieties it 

 made no difference in the color of the 

 flesh whether seeds were present or not. 

 But the underlying cause of this was 

 not known, and it is indeed not fully 

 understood yet, but it is now known 

 that the development of seeds and the 

 accompanying darkening of the flesh 

 in those varieties in which the pecu- 

 liarity occurs is due to pollination. 



The parthenogenetic development of 

 seeds in D. virginiana, the common 

 persimmon of the southern United 

 States, has been suggested on circum- 

 stantial evidence by a nimiber of writers, 

 but experimental proof appears to be 

 lacking and the presence of perfect or 

 staminate flowers on supposedly pis- 

 tillate flowering trees has not been 

 excluded. 



Hague^ found no evidence of parthen- 

 ogenesis in numerous studies of the 

 embryogeny of D. virginiana. 'Thiis far 

 in the writer's experiments not a single 

 case of seed development has 'been 

 found in fruits developed from care- 



