4 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
EBENACE. 
The most valuable is that of Diospyros Kaki, which is cultivated as a fruit-tree in some parts of 
China and Japan, in California,” the southern United States,’ and in southern Europe.‘ 
In the United States Diospyros is not seriously injured by insects® or fungal diseases.° 
The generic name, from Aids and zvpdéc, in allusion to the life-giving properties of the fruit, was 
established by Linnzus, who discarded the Guaiacana of Tournefort.’ 
1 Linneus f. Suppl. 439 (1781). — Thunberg, Fl. Jap. 157 (excl. 
var. 8). — Blume, Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind. 669. — Wight, Icon. Pl. 
Ind. Orient. t. 415.— A. de Candolle, Prodr. viii. 229 (excl. var. 
glabra). —C. B. Clarke, Hooker f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iii. 555. — Hiern, 
Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc. xii. pt. i. 227, f. — Rev. Hort. 1887, 348, t. — 
Franchet & Savatier, Enum. Pl. Jap. i. 306. — Forbes & Hemsley, 
Jour. Linn. Soc. xxvi. 69. 
? Diospyros Chinensis, Blume, Cat. Hort. Buitenz. 110 (1823). 
? Diospyros Schi-Tse, Bunge, Mém. Sav. Etr. St. Pétersbourg, 
ii. 116 (Enum. Pl. Chin. Bor.) (1834).— Naudin, Nouv. Arch. 
Mus. sér. 2, iii. 222. 
Embryopteris Kaki, Don, Gen. Syst. iv. 41 (1837). 
? Diospyros costata, Carriere, Rev. Hort. 1870, 134, f. 
? Diospyros Kaki, var. costata, André, Jil. Hort. xviii. 176, t. 78 
(1871). 
Diospyros Roxburghii, Carriére, 1. c. 1872, 253, f. 28, 29. 
Diospyros Mazeli, Carriere, 1. c. 1874, 70, t. 
? Diospyros Sinensis, Naudin, J. c. 221 (1880). 
? Diospyros Kempferi, Naudin, I. c. 226 (1880). 
The origin of the cultivated Kakis is uncertain, and the home of 
the wild types from which they have been developed is not well 
established. Naudin’s view, based upon plants introduced from 
Japan into the gardens of southern Europe (I. c. 226), that three 
species are cultivated under the general name of Kaki, is perhaps 
the correct one; and the varieties which are chiefly cultivated by 
the Japanese, and which have been introduced in considerable num- 
bers into the temperate parts of the United States, are perhaps 
derived not from Diospyros Kaki but from Diospyros Schi-Tse, a 
native, it is supposed, of northern China. The Diospyros com- 
monly cultivated in central and northern Japan produces large thick- 
skinned orange-colored fruits which vary somewhat in shape and 
size, but are usually broadly ovate, pointed, and from two to three 
inches in diameter ; they are produced by a tree thirty or sometimes 
forty feet high, with a short trunk, wide-spreading rather pendu- 
lous branches, and large leathery oval more or less cordate dark 
green lustrous leaves which, having turned to shades of orange and 
scarlet, fall before the fruit is fully ripe. The severity of the cli- 
mate in which this tree flourishes in the mountain regions of Japan 
The 
varieties with large red thin-skinned fruits are much less hardy 
clearly indicates that it is derived from a northern species. 
and are cultivated in the southern provinces of Japan and in south- 
ern China (Burbidge, Gard. Chron. n. ser. xiii. 106), only flourish- 
ing in regions suitable to the cultivation of the Orange-tree. It is 
possible that these two distinct forms are derived from a single 
species of wide continental range, although until the Chinese spe- 
cies can be studied in their original forms it is impossible to deter- 
mine the origin and relationship of varieties which have been per- 
fected by centuries of cultivation and selection. 
In Japan the Diospyros is the universally cultivated fruit-tree ; 
it is found in every garden and by every cottage, and in the early 
autumn, when the trees are covered with their lustrous leaves and 
brilliant fruit they form the most striking feature of the rural 
landscape, and are not equaled in beauty by any fruit-tree of cold 
temperate climates. More than a hundred varieties are distin- 
guished by Japanese horticulturists, who propagate them by graft- 
ing (Kaempfer, Amen. 805, t.— Dupont, Notes relatives aux Kakis 
cultivés Japonais). The fruit, which is an important article of food, 
is gathered before it is fully ripe, and is eaten while it is still 
hard and astringent, or, carefully packed in old saké tubs, it is 
allowed to mellow gradually and to collect the flavor and perfume 
of the saké. It is also dried in the sun, pressed flat, and packed 
in boxes for export or winter use. From the green fruit, shibu, 
an astringent fluid rich in tannin and employed in several indus- 
tries, is pressed. It is made in early summer by pounding the 
young fruit in iron mortars into pulp, which is covered with water 
in wooden tubs and allowed to soak for five or six hours, when it is 
put into bags made of straw rope and made to yield by pressure a 
milky juice, which soon becomes darker on exposure to the air. 
This juice is shibu of the best quality ; a second quality is obtained 
by resoaking and repressing the refuse pulp. Shibu, as it appears 
in commerce, is a light gray fluid containing numerous fine hard 
particles; it is employed to toughen wood, paper, and fishing 
nets, and is used in one of the processes of lacquering, in the prep- 
aration of saké, and in dyeing (Rein, Industries of Japan, 88, 179, 
181, 354). In central China oil obtained from the unripe fruit is 
used to make hats and umbrellas impervious to water (Forbes & 
Hemsley, J. c. 70) ; and the fruit is used in medicine (Smith, Chi- 
nese Mat. Med. 87). 
The wood of the Diospyros cultivated in central Japan is heavy 
and hard, but not particularly strong, with a thick dark gray sap- 
wood more or less marked with dark lines towards the interior, 
and thin black heartwood, which is valued by the Japanese, who 
use it in turnery and in the manufacture of small boxes. 
2 Wickson, California Fruits and How to Grow Them, ed. 2, 484. 
3 Am. Agric. xxxvi. 222, f.— Proc. Am. Pomol. Soc. 17th Ses- 
sion, 1880, 40 ; 19th Session, 1884, 146 ; 22d Session, 1889, 104. — 
U. S. Dept. Agric. Div. Pomol. Bull. No. 1, 6, t. 2, 3. 
4 Naudin, Manuel de l’ Acclimateur, 248. 
5 Few insects are reported as feeding upon Diospyros in Amer- 
ica, although little is known of the wood-borers which attack it. 
The leaves of Diospyros Virginiana are occasionally injured by a 
number of general foliage-eating lepidopterous larve, and a leaf- 
miner, Aspidisca diospyriella, Chambers, lives within their paren- 
chyma. On this tree were first detected Aphis Diospyri, Thomas 
(8th Rep. Insects of Illinois, 95), and Psylla Diospyri, Ashmead 
(Canadian Entomologist, 1881, 222). 
® Botryospheria Persimmons, Saccardo, and Valsaria Diospyri, 
De Notaris, are peculiar to Diospyros Virginiana, producing small 
swellings on the bark, which, so far as is known, are not followed 
by any serious disease of the tree. On the leaves of this tree, 
Cercospora Diospyri,Cooke, and Cercospora fuliginosa, Ellis & Kel- 
lerman, cause spots, from which a white growth protrudes on their 
lower surface. A third species of Cercospora, C. Kaki, Ellis & 
Evans, has been found in Louisiana on the leaves of the cultivated 
Japanese Diospyros. 
7 Inst. 600, t. 371. 
