EBENACEA. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 7 
DIOSPYROS VIRGINIANA. 
Persimmon, 
STAMINATE flowers in 3-flowered fascicles; anthers opening longitudinally almost 
throughout their entire length; pistillate flowers with 8 staminodia; ovary nearly 
glabrous. Leaves oval. 
Diospyros Virginiana, Linneus, Spec. 1057 (1753). — 
Miller, Dict. ed. 8, No. 2.— Moench, Béuwme Weiss. 
39.— Wangenheim, Beschr. Nordam. Holz. 129; Nord- 
am. Holz. 84, t. 28, £. 58.— Marshall, Arbust. Am. 
40. — Castiglioni, Viag. negli Stati Uniti, ii. 233. — 
Walter, Fl. Car. 253. — Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 446. — 
Willdenow, Berl. Baumz. 101; Spec. iv. 1107; Enum. 
1061. — Abbot, Insects of Georgia, ii. t. 61, 74. — 
Michaux, #7. Bor.-Am. ii. 258. — Borkhausen, Handb. 
Forstbot. ii. 1863. — Geertner, f. Fruct. iii. 138, t. 207. — 
Poiret, Lam. Dict. v. 428. — Persoon, Syn. ii. 624. — 
Duhamel, Traité des Arbres Fruitiers, nouv. éd. i. t. 
37. — Desfontaines, Hist. Arb. i. 208. — Du Mont de Cour- 
set, Bot. Cult. ed. 2, iii. 312. — Titford, Hort. Bot. Am. 
106. — Michaux f. Hist. Arb. Am. ii. 195, t. 12. — 
Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. ii. 265. — Nouveau Duhamel, vi. 
84. — Nuttall, Gen. ii. 240. — Hayne, Dendr. Fl. 228. — 
Elliott, Sk. ii. 712. — Collin, Férslag af nagra Nord- 
Americas Tréd, 23. — Audubon, Birds, t. 87. — Sprengel, 
Syst. ii. 202.— Watson, Dendr. Brit. ii. 146, t. 146. — 
Don, Gen. Syst. iv. 39. — Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 1195, t. 
200, 201. — Spach, Hist. Vég. ix. 405. — A. de Candolle, 
Prodr. iv. 228. — Dietrich, Syn. v. 487.— Belg. Hort. 
iv. 118, t. — Darlington, F7. Cestr. ed. 3, 176. — Chap- 
man, #7. 273. — Curtis, Rep. Geolog. Surv. N. Car. 
1860, iii. 70. — Koch, Dendr. ii. 204. — Hiern, Trans. 
Camb. Phil. Soc. xii. pt. i. 224. — Charropin, Htude sur 
le Plaqueminier, 26.— Gray, Syn. Fl. N. Am. ii. pt. i. 
69.— Lauche, Deutsche Dendr. ed. 2, 215. — Sargent, 
Forest Trees, N. Am. 10th Census, U. S. ix. 104. — Diez, 
Regensburg Flora, 1887, 535.— Watson & Coulter, 
Gray’s Man. ed. 6, 333.—Girke, Engler & Prantl 
Pflanzenfam. iv. pt. i. f. 86, F.— Baillon, Hist. Pl. xi. 
f. 218-222. — Coulter, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. ii. 257 
(Man. Pl. W. Texas). — Koehne, Deutsche Dendr. 483, 
f. 79, A-J. 
Diospyros Guajacana, Romans, Nat. Hist. Florida, 20 
(1775). — Robin, Voyages, iii. 417. 
Diospyros concolor, Moench, Meth. 471 (1794). 
Diospyros pubescens, Pursh, #7. Am. Sept. i. 265 (not 
Persoon) (1814). — Rafinesque, #7. Ludovic. 139. — Don, 
Gen. Syst. iv. 838. — Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 1196. 
Diospyros Caroliniana, Rafinesque, Fl. Ludovic. 139 
(1817). 
Diospyros Virginiana, var. pubescens, Nuttall, Gen. ii. 
240 (1818). — Elliott, Sk. ii. 713. 
Diospyros Virginiana, var. microcarpa, Rafinesque, Med. 
Fi. i. 155 (1828). 
Diospyros Virginiana, var. concolor, Rafinesque, Med. 
Fil. i. 155 (1828). 
Diospyros Virginiana, var. macrocarpa, Rafinesque, 
Med. Fl. i. 155 (1828). 
Diospyros Persimon, Wikstrém, Jahr. Schwed. 1830, 92 
(1834). 
Diospyros ciliata, Rafinesque, New 7. iii. 25 (not A. de 
Candolle) (1836). 
A tree, with thick fleshy black stoloniferous roots, usually thirty to fifty feet in height, with a short 
trunk rarely more than twelve inches in diameter, and spreading often pendulous branches which form a 
broad or narrow round-topped head; or, when growing in the primeval forest under the most favorable 
conditions, sometimes a hundred to a hundred and fifteen feet high, with a long slender trunk free from 
branches for seventy or eighty feet, and rarely exceeding two feet in diameter. The bark of the trunk 
is three quarters of an inch to an inch im thickness, dark brown tinged with red, or dark gray, and 
deeply divided into thick square plates, their surface being broken into thin persistent scales. The 
branchlets are terete, slender, with a thick pith, or pith cavity,’ shghtly zigzag by the death of the tip 
during the summer,” light reddish brown and more or less coated, when they first appear, with pale 
1 The branchlets of Diospyros Virginiana sometimes contain no 
pith and are then hollow (Foerste, Bot. Gazette, xvii. 186). 
2 The ends of the branchlets of Diospyros Virginiana die and 
shrivel up in early summer before the formation of the terminal 
buds, and during the winter appear as small dark-colored stubs 
immediately below the upper axillary buds which the following 
spring prolong the branches (Henry, Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. xxii. 239, 
t. 21, f. 7. — Brendel, Illinois Mus. Nat. Hist. Bull. No. 1, t. 3, £. 
26. — Foerste, /. c. 184; Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xix. 268, t. 132, f. 
9; xx. 162). 
