Trees, Shrubs and Vines 



stances ; but the species of this group have so dignified 

 the title that no odium now attaches to it. As exam- 

 ples of a euphonious and equally significant style of 

 nomenclature that far better befits the dignity of the 

 subject might be instanced the mountain maple, smoke- 

 tree, weeping willow, fringe-tree, staghorn sumach, tulip- 

 tree, silver-leaf poplar, red-bud, hawthorn, silver-bell- 

 tree, and rhododendron (literally, rose-tree). But it is 

 useless to complain : pignut it is, and pignut it will 

 remain ; our ancestors have a good many things to 

 answer for, and this is one of the minor sins. 



Persimmon. — Some botanical writers seem to think 

 that they will degrade their subject unless they give to 

 every species a flattering notice, and the multitudinous 

 synonyms of the word '' beautiful " are successively ap- 

 plied to all the species brought under review. Thus 

 one authority — probably more from habit than from an 

 intention to deceive — introduces the persimmon with 

 the strange remark that it is '' one of the most interest- 

 ing of our native trees " ; yet I searched in vain in the 

 subsequent biography for a single item that would justify 

 such wholesale praise. Like men, trees are good, bad, 

 and indifferent ; and the persimmon is one of the indif- 

 ferent sort. Its form is unobjectionable, its leaf-type 

 rather colorless, its fruit at its best estate cannot be 

 reckoned among the standard sorts, and, although be- 

 longing to the ebony family, its conversion of sap-wood 

 into blackish heart-wood is so slow and limited as to 

 have no commercial value. Whoever likes persimmons 

 after the frost has touched them would do well to culti- 



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