SS AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



to the same extent, of the remaining species of Elaeagnus, for 

 which Gumi is the generic term. 



if) Berries. 



1 6, Diospyros Kaki, L. fil., Jap. Kaki, Chinese Shi-tse, Fr. 

 plaqueminier, Eng. persimon — the date-plum or lotus-plum tree. 

 This Ebenacea, remarkable also on account of its wood, is un- 

 deniably the most widely distributed, most important, and most 

 beautiful fruit-tree in Japan, Corea, and Northern China.^ In Japan 

 it endures night frosts, at a temperature of from — 12° C. to — 16° C. 

 It can be cultivated high up in the valleys and far beyond the limit 

 of the bamboo-cane. It is a stately tree, after the fashion of a 

 pear-tree, with beautiful deciduous leaves, almost as large as those 

 of some magnolias, but of bright-green colour and resembling those 

 of the pear in shape only. The new leaves come in May, blossoms in 

 June, the season of ripe fruit is late in autumn, from the middle of 

 September to the end of November. Thunberg (" Flor. jap.," 

 p. 158) strikingly describes this handsome berry (from the size of 

 an Ggg to that of a man's fist), as follows : — 



" Pomum subglobosum, obsolete tetragonum, glabrum, imma- 

 turum viride, maturum flavum, basi truncatum, calyce persistente 

 ornatum, obtusum stigmate persistente, octovalve, octoloculare, 

 magnitudine pomi mediocris, sapore fere pruni albi dulcis, 

 carnosum." 



There are many kinds of Kaki, ranging in size from a small 

 hen's Qgg to a big apple. Some are nearly spherical, others 

 oblong, others heart-shaped. In colour of the outer skin they 

 run from light orange-yellow to deep orange-red. They are dis- 

 tinguished also by their taste, which is pleasant in its way and 

 reminds one of tomatoes, as does the colour also. They are eaten 

 not only in a soft, doughy condition, in which those of the 

 Migako-no-dj6, in the province Hiuga, are prized most highly, but 

 the fruit is gathered while still hard, to ripen afterwards. The best 

 in Japanese estimation are Tarugaki, i.e.y " tub persimons," which 

 have been converted from astringent into sweet fruit by being kept 

 in an old sake tub. The bitter, astringent taste of all green Kaki 

 remains, even in the ripe fruit, in the case of most varieties, and it 

 is from these that, during the summer, an astringent fluid, rich in 

 tannin, is prepared (called Shibu), an acid of considerable importance 

 in several industries. (See paragraph in the next section.) When 

 over-ripe and dried in the sun, pressed somewhat flat, and then 

 put away in boxes, the sweet Kaki get to look and taste in a {qvj 

 months, when skinned, like dried figs, and are used like them. 

 The white powder which covers these dried persimons in boxes is 

 natural sugar that has exuded from the fruit. 



In September, the Kaki-tree, laden with large, orange-coloured 



^ Thus, for example, Markham, in his " Travels through the Province of 

 Shantung,^' in X\iQ Jourtt. Roy. Geogr. Soc. (1870), says, "Persimmon-trees 

 abound." 



