EBENACES. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 9 
region east of the Alleghany Mountains from southern New York to the banks of the Caloosa River 
and the shores of Bay Biscayne in Florida, and southern Alabama and Mississippi; west of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains it is distributed from southern Ohio to southeastern Iowa, southern Missouri, Arkan- 
sas, Louisiana, eastern Kansas, the Indian Territory, and the valley of the Colorado River in Texas. 
The Persimmon usually grows in light sandy well-drained soil, although in the basin of the Mississippi, 
where it attains its largest size, it is sometimes found in the primeval forests which clothe the deep rich 
bottom-lands of river valleys.! | It is exceedingly common in the south Atlantic and Gulf states, often 
covering with a shrubby growth, by means of its stoloniferous roots, abandoned fields exhausted by 
agriculture, and springing up by the sides of roads and fences. 
The wood of Diospyros Virginiana is heavy, hard, strong, and very close-grained, with numerous 
conspicuous medullary rays and bands of one or two rows of open ducts marking the layers of annual 
growth. The heartwood, which is often not developed until the tree is over a hundred years old, is 
dark brown or sometimes nearly black, and is rarely seen. The specific gravity of the sapwood, which is 
light brown and often marked with darker spots, when absolutely dry is 0.7908, a cubic foot weighing 
49.28 pounds. 
domestic use; for shuttles it is preferred to other American woods. 
It is employed in turnery, for shoe-lasts, plane-stocks, and many small articles of 
The fruit contains tannin similar to that of cinchona, to which it owes its astringent qualities, pec- 
> it is eaten in great quantities 
tin, sugar, and lignin, but neither vegetable albumen, starch, nor resin ; 
in the southern states and is sometimes to be found in the markets of northern cities, where, however, 
it is not much appreciated. By the Indians of the south bread was made of the dried fruit, which is 
still occasionally used in the same manner in the western and southern states, where persimmons are 
also fermented with hops, corn meal, or wheat bran, into a sort of beer which is used domestically, or 
are manufactured into brandy.* It is a favorite food of hogs and many other animals. The inner 
bark, which is astringent and bitter, and the unripe fruit are sometimes used in the treatment of fevers, 
Indelible ink is made from the fruit, and the 
dried, roasted, and ground seeds have been used as a substitute for coffee.” 
diarrhoea, and hemorrhage, and with alum as a gargle.* 
In the autumn of 1539 the companions of De Soto learned from the Indians in Florida the value 
of the fruit of the Persimmon, which helped them to eke out their scanty fare. The earliest mention of 
it appears in the narrative of his expedition published at Evora in 1557 ;* and in the next century the 
fruit was admirably described by Jan de Laet in his account of Virginia,’ and by William Strachey.® 
The date of the first introduction of the tree into European gardens is uncertain; it was carried, 
1 Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1882, 68. 
2 Rafinesque, Med. Fil. i. 153, t. 32.—B. R. Smith, Am. Jour. 
Pharm. xviii. 161. — J. E. Bryan, Am. Jour. Pharm. xxxii. 215. 
8 Porcher, Resources of Southern Fields and Forests, 385. 
4 Woodhouse, On the Chemical and Medical Properties of the Per- 
simmon Tree and the Analysis of Astringent Vegetables. — Barton, 
Coll. ed. 2, i. 11, 45 ; ui. 52. — Griffith, Med. Bot. 435, £. 196. — 
Rosenthal, Syn. Pl. Diaphor. 512.— Mettauer, Boston Med. and 
Surg. Jour. lxxvii. 188.— Nat. Dispens. ed. 2, 514. — Baillon, Traité 
Bot. Méd. 1311.— Johnson, Man. Med. Bot. N. Am. 199.— U. S. 
Dispens. ed. 16, 1783. 
5 Med. and Surg. Reporter, 1873, 437. 
6 «There were many mulberrie trees and plum trees, which bare 
red plums like those of Spaine, and other gray, somewhat differing, 
but farre better.” (The Discovery and Conquest of Florida, by Don 
Fernando de Soto, ed. Rye, chap. xxiii. 94.) 
‘‘ They travelled seven daies journie through a desert, and re- 
turned verie wearie, eating greene plums and stalkes of mais.” 
(Chap. xxiv. 102.) 
“Canoes loden with maiz, French beanes, prunes, and many 
loaves made of the substance of prunes.” (Chap. xxix. 119.) 
“The plummes are of two kindes, red and gray, of the making 
and bignesse of nuts, and have three or foure stones in them.” 
(Chap. xliv. 169.) 
7 “Prunorum species hic tres observate, quarum duz que rubra 
atque alba Pruna ferunt, arbutis similes : tertiz vero fructus appel- 
lant barbari Putchamins, hec in Palme altitudinem adolescit, & 
fructum fert mespilo non absimilem primo viridem, deinde subfla- 
vum, ubi plene maturuerit, rubicundum : immaturus austerior est 
& si masticetur, os cum exquisito dolore astringit, maturus gratis- 
(Nov. Orb. 80.) 
8 «They have a plomb which they call pessemmins, like to a 
simi est saporis & precocibus omnino similis.” 
medler, in England, but of a deeper tawnie cullour ; they grow on 
a most high tree. When they are not fully ripe, they are harsh and 
choakie, and furre in a man’s mouth like allam, howbeit, being 
taken fully ripe, yt is a reasonable pleasant fruict, somewhat 
lushious. JI have seene our people put them into their baked and 
sodden puddings ; there be whose tast allowes them to be as pre- 
tious as the English apricock ; I confesse it is a good kind of horse 
plomb.” (The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia, ed. Ma- 
jor, 118.) 
