Diospyros 999 



DIOSPYROS LOTUS, Date-Plum 



Diospyros Lotus, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 1057 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 1194 (1838); C. 

 B. Clarke, in Hooker, Fl. Brit. India, iii. 555 (1882); Hemsley, in Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) 

 xxvi. 70 (1889); Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. Forest. Japon, 123, t. 79 (1900). 



Diospyros microcarpa, Siebold, in Ann. Soc. Hort. Pays.-Bas. 1844, p. 28. 



Diospyros japonica, Siebold et Zuccarini in Abh. Bayer. Acad. iv. 3, p. 136 (1846). 



A tree attaining 60 feet in height and 6 feet in girth. Bark remaining a long 

 time smooth, finally rough and with plate-like scales. Young shoots with a moder- 

 ately long dense pubescence, often persistent in the second year. Leaves (Plate 199, 

 Fig. 4) oblong or elliptical, base rounded or broadly cuneate, apex acuminate or acute; 

 margin entire, ciliate ; upper surface dark green, shining, usually becoming glabrous 

 except at the base of the midrib, but often with scattered minute hairs on the veins 

 and veinlets ; lower surface pale and pubescent throughout ; veins pinnate and 

 looping towards the margin ; petiole, \ to \ inch, pubescent. 



Flowers dioecious. Staminate flowers, two to three together in subsessile cymes ; 

 calyx with four short ovate acute ciliate lobes ; corolla urceolate, with four short obtuse 

 lobes ; stamens sixteen, in pairs in two series ; filaments glabrous. Pistillate flowers, 

 solitary, subsessile ; staminodes, eight ; ovary eight-celled, one ovule in each cell ; 

 styles, four. Fruit subsessile, almost globose, yellow or blackish, \ to \ inch in 

 diameter ; fruiting-calyx spreading, with a ring of short dense silky hairs on the 

 inside beneath the fruit. The fruit varies considerably in size, and is astringent in 

 flavour. 



The leaves pubescent beneath, and the different buds and leaf-scars distinguish 

 this species in summer from D. virginiana. In winter the following characters 

 (Plate 200, Fig. 3) are available : Twigs slender, usually with scattered long hairs, 

 occasionally glabrous ; two long acuminate scales of the previous season's bud 

 persist at the base of the shoot. Leaf-scars small, nearly parallel to the twig on 

 prominent pulvini, semicircular, marked with a raised transverse crescentic ridge, 

 composed of the coalesced bundle cicatrices. True terminal bud absent, stump at 

 the apex of the twig pubescent. Buds long, ovoid, acuminate, blackish, pubescent ; 

 outer scales two, imbricate, long, acuminate, pubescent, ciliate, concave interiorly. 



This species has been long in cultivation, and its exact distribution in the wild 

 state is difficult to define. It appears to be indigenous in Asia Minor ; in the 

 Caucasus, 1 where it occurs wild throughout the whole territory between sea-level and 

 3500 feet; in Afghanistan; in the north-west Himalaya 2 at 2000 to 6000 feet in 

 Hazara and Kashmir ; and in central and northern China. 



It has been cultivated for centuries in the countries bordering on the Mediter- 

 ranean, and has become naturalised in many places, as in the south of France and 

 in Dalmatia. It is not v/ild in Japan, but is often planted there, either for its own 



1 Radde, Pflanzenverb. Kaukasusland. 181 (1 889). 2 Gamble, Indian Timbers, 455 (1902). 



