202 T/ie Persimmon; The Etionymus : The, Holly. 



PERSIMMON (Diospyros Virginiana). 



1187. This tree, sometimes called the "date plum," belongs to 

 the Ebony family, and is the only American representative of the 

 Ebenacece. Several species of this genus furnish the ebony of com- 

 merce. They grow chiefly in the torrid zone, and are distinguished 

 for the hardness of their wood, which is intensely black. 



1188. The persimmon grows to a tree sixty or seventy feet in 

 height, from the southern part of New England, westward to Iowa, 

 and southward to Florida and Louisiana. Its fruit is intensely as- 

 tringent when green, but becomes palatable when frozen. Some 

 Asiatic species bear a large edible fruit, and have been introduced in 

 California, with fair prospect of success. 



1189. THE MEXICAN PERSIMMON (D. Texana) is a shrub from 

 10 to 30 feet in height, and occurs in Southern and Western Texas, 

 and in the adjacent parts of Mexico. 



THE BURNING-BRUSH (Genus Euonymus). 



1190. Of this shrub there are three species native to the United 

 States. They are sometimes trailing, or climbing by rootlets, and 

 are very ornamental in autumn when their bright red fruit is ripe. 



The SPINDLE TREE (E. atropurpureus) grows in dark, shady woods, 

 the Atlantic States, from Canada to Florida, and has dark purple 

 flowers, and a crimson fruit. The STRAWBERRY TREE (E. Ameri- 

 cana) has about the same range of latitude, and extends west to 

 Iowa and Nebraska. The remaining species (E. augustifolius) is 

 found in Georgia. 



THE HOLLY FAMILY (Natural Order llicineci). 



1191. This includes but three genera, of which the Ilex is the only 

 one that claims our notice. It embraces about 145 species, mostly 

 South American end tropical; some of them are, however, widely 

 scattered through the temperate zones. They are rare in Africa and 

 Australia, and a dozen or so are natives of the United States. 



1192. THE COMMON HOLLY {Ilex opaca) is an evergreen tree, 

 found growing in the Atlantic States, from Eastern Massachusetts 

 southward, reaching its greatest development in the Southern States. 

 In West Virginia it is found along mountain streams and gravelly 



