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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