THE HELIOTROPE FAMILY. 283 



lines. Ebony and ironwood belong to this order. From a 

 horticultural point of sight they are interesting as affording 

 edible fruits, the best being furnished by Diospyros kaki, or 

 Chinese Date Plum, and its numerous cultural forms. 



The Persimmon (Diospyros virginiaca), several varieties of 

 which are found in America, forms an excellent stock on which 

 to graft the finer varieties of the Chinese or Japanese Date 

 Plum (D. kaki\ Several other species of Diospyros bear edible 

 fruit (see 'Gard. Chron.,' 1871, p. 9, and 1872, p. 576). D. 

 kaki, var. costata (see 'Revue Hort.,' July 16, 1871) has been 

 recommended for orchard-house culture in this country, and 

 bears very handsome orange-yellow fruit the size of Apricots. 

 Fruit of this variety have since ripened in the Isle of Wight, 

 and are figured in the 'Gardeners' Chronicle,' 1875, p. 777. 

 A new species D. Mazeli is figured and described (see 

 'Revue Hort.,' 1874, p. 70, 71), and has been introduced into 

 the south of France from Japan. The fruit is delicious, with 

 a flavour like Apricots (see also 'Jour, of Botany,' 1875, plate 

 171, and p. 353). In the 'Illustration Horticole,' 1874, p. 

 139-142, M. Andre contributes a short paper on Date Plums, 

 which is worth notice. 



THE HELIOTROPE FAMILY (Ehretiacece). 



A small group of trees or shrubs, mostly tropical, the best- 

 known representative in our gardens being the deliciously fra- 

 grant Peruvian Heliotrope. 



Heliotropium (Cherry-pie}. A small genus of low-growing 

 annual or suffruticose perennial plants, represented in our gar- 

 dens by the common Heliotrope (H. peruvianuni) and many 

 beautiful and fragrant seminal forms, which have for the most 

 part originated in Continental gardens. They are natives of 

 Chili, Peru, India, and other tropical or subtropical countries. 



Heliotropium peruvianum is a deliciously-perfumed ever-bloom- 

 ing old plant, introduced to Paris by Jussieu the younger, who 

 forwarded seeds ; and in Miller's Dictionary it is described as 

 having flowered and perfected seeds at Kew at a later date 

 (see 'Bot. Mag.,' t. 141). 



H. corymbosum (see 'Bot. Mag.,' t. 1609), a much larger 

 flowered plant, was also introduced from Peru in 1812 ; but its 

 showy lilac-tinted flowers are not fragrant. Considerable im- 

 provement might possibly be effected by hybridising these two 

 species, so as to obtain a race with larger flowers than L. peru- 

 vianum and equally fragrant. 



