226 MB HIEKST, ON EBENACE^E. 



of New Jersey; it is said to become better fit to eat after it has suffered frost, and then 

 it becomes very sweet but mawkish. Though eaten by the negroes, and often brought to 

 market, it is not a table-fruit. There is however a sweet variety (D. virginiana, L. var. dul- 

 cis), which is said to yield a good table-fruit. "For an interesting account of the properties 

 of the tree and its fruit, see the inaugural thesis of the late Professor Woodhouse, of the 

 University of Pennsylvania." Darlington, Florula Cestrica, p. 47 (1826). 



Two other inaugural essays have been devoted to the study of the fruit of this tree ; 

 one by Benj. R. Smith, printed in the American Journal of Pharmacy, October, 1846, pp. 161 

 167, and the other by John E. Bryan, in the same journal, May, 1860, pp. 215 217. From 

 these essays the following results are taken. The fruit contains tannin, pectin (or perhaps 

 malic acid), sugar, lignin and colouring matter and neither vegetable albumen starch nor resin. 

 Of 600 grains of green persimon there were found to be 119 grs. of insoluble resinous matter, 

 64 grs. of saccharine matter slightly acid, 22 grs. of ligneous matter, 1 of green colouring 

 matter, and the remaining 394 grs. were supposed to be water. It is further supposed that 

 in the young fruit lignin serves as a sort of frame-work and as a means of circulation for the 

 juices of the plant ; but as the fruit ripens the lignin is converted into sugar, 20 parts of lignin 

 producing 21 parts of sugar. The astringent principle is tannin analogous to that of Cinchona, 

 Catechu, &c., and different from that of galls and oak-bark; and the fruit retains its astringency 

 when dried carefully. 



An astringent and styptic. The inner bark is used in intermittent fever, in diarrhoeas 

 and with alum as a gargle in ulcerated sore throat. An indelible ink can also be made from 

 the fruit. (See Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, by Dr Porcher, pp. 423 427, 

 Charleston, 1869.) 



In the southern United States of N. America the fruit hangs during part of the winter on 

 the tree a long time after the fall of the leaves ; and when at length it too falls, it is eagerly eaten 

 by both wild and domestic animals. In Virginia, Carolina and the western States, the fruit 

 is gathered, kneaded with bran, made into cakes and baked. These cakes mixed with tepid 

 water serve to make beer with the addition of hops and yeast to cause fermentation. Spirit 

 is also distilled by further fermentation. Neither the beer nor the spirit is made for the 

 purposes of commerce. 



This species with its varieties has a foliage exceedingly like D. Lotus, L. ; it differs from the 

 latter by the male cymes and female peduncles being rather longer and by the larger flowers 

 and fruit. Some specimens with regard to which the native country is unknown, though 

 clearly belonging to one of these species, are extremely difficult to assign to either one of 

 them with certainty. 



Michaux also speaks of a variety with smaller fruit, compressed seeds, and leaves pubes- 

 cent underneath : this is D. pubescens, Pursh. Fl. N. Amer. p. 265 (1814) and the var. . micro- 

 carpa, Rafin. Med. Fl. n. p. 153. t. 32. A variety is occasionally met with in Sumter district, 

 S. Carolina, with fruit about twice the ordinary size (Dr Porcher). D. intermedia, Hort. is a 

 variety with more numerous (about 20) hairy stamens. Polygamous flowers occur in cultivated 

 specimens of this species. 



North America, United States, St Louis, Drummond!, Riehl! n. 178; New Orleans, 

 T. Drummond! n. 204 bis; "Woods and old fields, Rhode Island and New York to Illinois, 



