EBENACEAE. 



303 



DIOSPYROS. Persimmon. 

 (Family Ebenaceae). 



Shrubs or mostly moderate- 

 sized trees: deciduous. Twigs 

 moderate, terete, somewhat zig- 

 zag, red-brown, finally with evi- 

 dent lenticels: pith moderate, 

 rounded, greenish becoming white, 

 sometimes becoming spongy or 

 even chambered between lace-like 

 plates. Buds solitary, sessile, del- 

 toid-ovoid, with 2 greatly over- 

 lapping scales, the end-bud lack- 

 ing. Leaf-scars variable in posi- 

 t i o n , 2-ranked on spreading 

 branches, elsewhere 5-ranked or 

 exceptionally sub-oppositely 4- 

 ranked, half-elliptical, somewhat 

 raised: bundle-trace 1, C-shaped: 

 stipule-scars lacking. 



Winter-character references : 

 Diospyros kaki. Shirasawa, 243, 

 pi. 3. D. Lotus. Schneider, f. 



117; Shirasawa, 243, pi. 3. D. virginiana. Brendel, pi. 3; 

 Hitchcock (1), 5. 



Few trees possess a more characteristic bark than the 

 persimmon. The sometimes very regular squares into which 

 it checks differentiate the mature tree from any other with 

 which it is likely to occur. In contrast with this, it is un- 

 usually variable in leaf-position and in the structure of its 

 pith, though no other tree possesses a combination of bud- and 

 leaf-scar characters likely to be mistaken for those of 

 Diospyros. 



Twigs from loosely hairy glabrescent: buds glabrous, blackish. 



D. virginiana. 



