998 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Mouillefert nor Mayr mention this tree ; and I have seen none in Europe worth 

 mentioning, except a fine tree in the Botanic Garden at Padua, which appears to be 

 the pubescent variety of this species, although it is labelled D. Lotus. According to 

 Prof. Saccardo, it was planted in 1760, and measured 30 metres high by 2 metres in 

 girth in 1887. 



The American Persimmon was introduced into England some time before 1629, 

 when an account of a cultivated tree appeared in Parkinson's Paradisus published in 

 that year. 



It is extremely rare in this country at the present day, and Loudon in 1838 

 only mentioned six trees, two of which still survive. One of these, which is a 

 staminate tree, growing in Kew Gardens, now measures 64 feet in height by 5 feet 

 3 inches in girth, and, according to Sargent, 1 is apparently as thriving as if it were 

 in its native habitat. It is one of the denizens of the original Kew Arboretum, 

 which was laid out by W. Aiton, and in all probability was one of the numerous 

 trees presented in 1762 to the mother of George III. by Archibald, Duke of 

 Argyll, who was a great introducer and cultivator of rare trees at Whitton, near 

 Hounslow. 2 (Plate 261.) 



Another, mentioned by Loudon as being 24 years planted and 18 feet high 

 in 1838, is growing at the Wilderness, White Knights, near Reading, and is now 

 45 feet high by 4 feet 1 inch in girth. At Barton, Suffolk, another is 40 feet 

 high by 2 feet 1 inch in girth. At Bushey Lodge a tree with a broken top was, in 

 1904, 30 feet high by 5 feet 8 inches in girth. Suckers are growing from its roots 

 as far away as 50 feet, and one of these, 10 feet high, is said to be about ten 

 years old. 



Timber 



The wood is very hard and heavy, of a pale yellowish-white colour, with black 

 heartwood, which, however, usually shows only in old trees. Hough states that 

 he felled one 14 inches in diameter for the specimens in his work, 3 but though 

 there were over sixty rings of sap wood, only two or three in the heart were 

 black. It is used in America for shoe-lasts and shuttles, for which latter purpose it 

 is imported to a small extent to Liverpool. Michaux 4 states that it was used at 

 Charleston for shafts, and preferred for that purpose to ash or any wood except 

 lancewood, but the quantity available is too small to give this timber much economic 

 importance. The fruit is little valued as human food, though eaten by animals. 



(H. J. E.) 



1 Garden and Forest, loc. cit. 



* Cf. J. Smith, Records of Kew Gardens, 258 ; and Nicholson, in Gard. Chron. iv. 504 (1888), in which is given a good 

 picture of the tree (fig. 72). Cf. also Kew Bulletin, 1891, p. 292. 



* American Woods, iii. No. 61. 



4 Mich.yf/., N. Am. Sylva, ii. 222. 



