EBENACE^E 821 



apex; stigmas 2-parted or lobed; ovule solitary in each of the divisions of the cells. Fruit 

 globose, oblong or conic, 1-10-seeded, surrounded at base by the enlarged persistent calyx. 

 Seeds pendulous, oblong, compressed; seed-coat thick and bony, dark, more or less lus- 

 trous; embryo axile, straight or somewhat curved; cotyledons foliaceous, ovate or lanceo- 

 late; radicle superior, cylindric, turned toward the small hilum. 



Diospyros, which is chiefly tropical, is widely distributed with more than two hundred 

 species in the two hemispheres, with a few species extending beyond the tropics into eastern 

 North America, eastern Asia, southwestern Asia, and the Mediterranean region. 



Diospyros produces hard close-grained valuable wood, with dark or black heartwood and 

 thick soft yellow sap wood. The ebony of commerce is partly produced by different tropi- 

 cal species. The fruit is often edible, and some of the species are important fruit- trees in 

 China and Japan. 



The generic name, from Ai6s and 7rv/>6s, is in allusion to the life-giving properties of the 

 fruit. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Flowers on branchlets of the year; anthers opening longitudinally nearly throughout their 

 entire length; filaments pubescent; pistillate fl owners with 8 rudimentary stamens; 

 ovary nearly glabrous; leaves oval; fruit green, yellow, orange color or rarely black. 



1. D. virginiana (A, C), 



Flowers on branchlets of the previous year; anthers opening only near the apex; filaments 

 glabrous; pistillate flowers without rudimentary stamens; ovary pubescent; leaves 

 cuneate-oblong or obovate; fruit black. 2. D. texana (C). 



1. Diospyros virginiana L. Persimmon. 



Leaves ovate-oblong to oval or elliptic, acuminate ur abruptly acuminate at apex, nar- 

 rowed and cuneate or rounded or rarely broad and rounded at base, coriaceous, glabrous, 

 dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, pale on the low r er surface, 4 '-6' long and 2'-3' 



Fig. 730 



wide, with a broad flat midrib, about six pairs of conspicuous primary veins arcuate near 

 the margins and reticulate veinlets; falling in the autumn usually without much change of 

 color; petioles stout, glabrous or slightly villose-pubescent, \'-V in length. Flowers ap- 

 pearing when the leaves are more than half grown on branchlets of the year, from March in 

 the extreme south to June in the north; the staminate in 2-3-flowered pubescent peduncu- 

 late cymes, on pedicels from the axils of minute lanceolate acute caducous bracts and fur- 



