12 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. EBENACEZ. 
ovule in each cell. The fruit, which ripens in August, is subglobose, half an inch to an inch in diame- 
ter, pilose, tipped with the remnants of the style, and surrounded at the base by the large thickened 
leathery calyx sometimes an inch across, with oblong pubescent reflexed lobes; it is covered with a 
thick tough black skin which incloses the thin sweet insipid dark flesh, and contains three to eight 
triangular seeds rounded on the back, narrowed and flattened at the pointed apex, a third of an inch 
long, abéut an eighth of an inch thick, and covered with a thick bony lustrous light red pitted coat. 
Diospyros Texana is distributed from the valleys of the Colorado and Concho Rivers in Texas to 
Nuevo Leon. It is abundant in western and southern Texas, inhabiting, near the coast, the borders of 
prairies, where it flourishes in rich moist soil, growing on the bottom-lands of the Guadaloupe more 
vigorously than in other parts of the state; farther west it is found on dry rocky mesas and in isolated 
canons. In the region between the Sierra Madre and the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Nuevo Leon, 
where it is exceedingly common, the Chapote grows to its largest size. 
The wood of Diospyros Texana is heavy, hard, and very close-grained, with a satiny surface sus- 
ceptible of receiving a beautiful polish. It contains a few minute scattered open ducts and many thin 
medullary rays. The heartwood, which appears only in old individuals, is black, often streaked with 
yellow ; the sapwood is clear bright yellow. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.8460, 
a cubic foot weighing 52.72 pounds. It is used in turnery for the handles of tools, etc., and has been 
recommended as a substitute for boxwood for engraving-blocks.' The fruit, which is exceedingly 
austere until it is fully ripe, stains black, and probably possesses valuable tinctorial properties ; it is 
sometimes used by Mexicans inhabiting the valley of the Rio Grande to dye sheepskins.” 
Diospyros Texana was discovered in Nuevo Leon in February, 1828,* by the Belgian botanist 
Berlandier ;* in Texas it was first noticed by Lindheimer® in 1845 growing on the bottom-lands west of 
the Colorado River. 
Niospyros Texana is not known to be an inhabitant of gardens, where it might well find a 
place for the beauty of its dark lustrous foliage and abundant black fruit, which no doubt could be 
improved in size and quality by cultivation.® 
1 Jackson, Commercial Botany of the Nineteenth Century, 156. 5 See i. 74. 
2 Havard, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. viii. 523. § The black coloring matter is so abundant in the fruit of the 
8 Teste Hiern, Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc. xii. pt. i. 238. Chapote that it discolors the hands, lips, and teeth of a person 
4 See i. 82. eating it, and so lessens its value for the table. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Puate CCLIV. Drosprros TExana. 
. A flowering branch of a staminate tree, natural size. 
A flowering branch of a pistillate tree, natural size. 
A staminate flower, enlarged. 
- Vertical section of a staminate flower, enlarged. 
A stamen, enlarged. 
. A pistillate flower, enlarged. 
. Vertical section of a pistillate flower, enlarged. 
. A pistil cut transversely, enlarged. 
OWMWANAAAPR WY 
. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
. Cross section of a fruit, natural size. 
or 
eh OS 
. A seed, natural size. 
—_ 
bo 
. Vertical section of a seed, natural size. 
f= 
i) 
. An embryo, enlarged. 
