Persimmons. 



1 RECALL a conversation once held with an 

 obstinate man in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who 

 insisted that we had no persimmons in New Jersey, 

 and was only convinced by reference to Gray's 

 Botany. It is not an unusual occurrence for the 

 New Englander to be in the dark about our Jersey 

 lowlands, and if he was brought here blindfolded 

 would swear he was in the Carolinas, if not farther 

 South. Well, what the people up North know 

 or do not know matters nothing ; we do have 

 persimmon-trees, and in abundance. They are 

 in almost every tract of mixed woodland, and 

 often single trees are found along the road-sides. 

 Whether the ground is dry or damp seems to 

 matter little, for the tree is sure in either case to 

 be a thrifty one, even if not very large. In one 

 important respect it is of consequence what the 

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