Genus DIOSPYROS, Linn. 
EbenaceaD. Polygamia Dioeci. 
S "- Na '- Syst. Lin. 
Synonymes. 
Diospyros, Ebenus, Guaiacam, Of Authors. 
Plaqueminier, France. 
Dattelpflaume, Germany. 
Diospiro, Italy. 
Date Plum-tree, Britain and Anglo-America. 
Derivation. The word Diospyros is thought to be corrupted from the Greek Diospuros, (dios, divine, and puros, wheat,; a 
name given by the ancients to the Lithospermum officinale. Its application to the date plum is supposed to have arisen by con- 
founding the Greek puros, wheat, with the Latin ptjrus, a pear-tree, to the fruit of which the date plum may have been thought 
to bear some resemblance. 
Generic Characters. Flowers polygamous. Calyx deeply 4-cleft, sometimes 3 or 6-cleft. Corolla urceo 
late, 4-cleft ; sometimes 3 or 6-cleft. Male flowers having the stamens inserted by pairs into the base 
of the corolla, twice the number of its segments, with double or twin filaments, and the rudiment of a 
pistil. Hermaphrodite flowers having fewer and sterile stamens. Ovarium 8 12-celled : cells 1- 
seeded. Berry globose, with a spreading calyx which is at length reflexed. Albumen horny. Don, 
Miller's Diet. 
\HF, genus Diospyros embraces deciduous low trees, with white oi 
pale-yellow flowers ; natives of Europe, Northern Africa, West- 
ern Asia, the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and INorth Amer- 
ica. The only hardy species cultivated to much extent in Europe 
or America, are the European lotus, (Diospyros lotus,) and the 
Virginian date plum, or persimon (Diospyros virginiana.) The 
former grows to twenty or thirty feet, or more, in height, and is characterized by 
the beautiful dark, glossy green of the upper sides of its leaves, which, when 
mature and exposed to the air, assume a purplish hue beneath. Its fruit is some- 
times brought to the market at Constantinople, under the name of Tarabresan 
Curmasi; and in that part of Europe, it appears to grow much larger than either 
in Britain or in Italy, being nearly of the size of a walnut; it is austere, however, 
and unfit for the table, unless made into a conserve. 
Nearly allied to the same natural family are the iron-wood argania, (Argania 
sideroxylon,) a native of Morocco, and several species of bumelia, natives of the 
southern states of the American union. 
