Diospyros. EBENACE^. 69 



lets, pedicels in axillary fascicles, corolla immersed or nearly so in the double 



calyx, and a plum-like edible fruit. 



M. Sieberi, A. DC. Tree 30 feet high: leaves elliptical-oblong or inclining to obovate, 

 retuse, glabrous and green both sides (2 to 4 mches long), slender-petioled; midrib stout : 

 fascicles several-flowered : corolla whitish, 6-parted ; its slender appendages 12 : staminodia 

 short, triangular, nearly entire : fruit the size of a pigeon's egg, brownish or yellowish 

 when ripe, pleasant. — Prodr. viii. 204 ; Chapm. Fl. 275. M. dissecta, Griseb. 1. c, as to 

 W. Ind. pi. Achras mammosa, Sieber, Coll., not L. A. ZapotiUa, var. parviflora, Nutt. Sylv. 

 ill. 28, t. 90. — Key West, Plorida, Bhdgett, Palmer. Said to be common ; probably indi- 

 genous. (W. Ind.) 

 Achras Sapota, L., the Sappadilla or Naseberrt of the West Indies and Central 



America (for a variety of which Nuttall mistook the above tree), appears not to have 



reached Florida. 



Order LXXXIV. EBENACE^. 



Trees or shrubs, with limpid juice, alternate entire leaves, and dioecious or 

 polygamous (rarely completely hermaphrodite) regular flowers ; the staminate 

 with at least twice or thrice as many stamens as there are lobes to the short gamo- 

 petalous hypogynous corolla (usually convolute in the bud), and inserted on its 

 tube or base, their anthers introrse ; the pistillate flowers mostly with some im- 

 perfect stamens; the several-celled ovary with one or two anatropous ovules 

 suspended from the summit of each cell ; the fruit a berry, maturing one or more 

 large and bony-coated seeds. These have a cartilaginous albumen, and a rather 

 small straight embryo, with foliaceous cotyledons and a mostly slender radicle. 

 Calyx persistent, often foliaceous and accrescent. Filaments short. Hypogynous 

 disk wanting. Styles as many or h^ilf as many as the cells of the ovary, 2 to 8, 

 distinct or partly united : stigmas sometimes 2-parted. Stipules none. Flowers 

 axillary, articulated with the pedicels. Wood very hard ; that of several species 

 of Diospyros furnishes ebony. — Hiern, Mon. Eben. in Trans. Cambr. Phil. Soc. ' 

 xii, part i. — A small order, of warm regions, nearly two thirds of the species 

 belonging to the following genus. 



1. DIOSPYROS, L. Date-Plum, Persimmon. (z/io?, nvQ6<i, Jove's 

 grain.) — Calyx 4-5-lobed, enlarging under the fruit. Corolla campanulate, short- 

 salverform or urceolate. Ovary 4-1 2-celled ; a pair of ovules in each cell. Berry 

 maturing only 4 to 8 oblong bony flattened seeds. Flowers essentially dioecious'; 

 but the fertile flowers (commonly solitary in the axils) may have sterile stamens 

 more or less polliniferous ; the sterile flowers much smaller, usually racemose or 

 clustered, and with more numerous stamens. — A large genus, widely dispersed, 

 but the greater portion Asiatic : fruit edible. 



D. Virginiana, L. (Comimon Persimmon.) Tree 20 to 70 feet high, with a rough bark : 

 leaves thickish-membranaceous, more or less pubescent when young, commonly soon 

 glabrate, oval (2 to 5 inches long) : sterile flowers in tlirees : calyx 4-parted : corolla 

 4-lobed, greenish-yellow, thickish, glabrous: stamens 16, in pairs, somewhat pubescent; 

 the sterile ones of the fertile flowers 8 : styles 4, 2-lobed at apex : ovary 8-celled, nearly 

 glabrous : fruit plum-like, an inch in diameter, excessively astringent when green, yellow 

 when ripe, and when frosted sweet and luscious. — Gaertn. f. Carp. Suppl. t. 207 ; Michx. 

 f. Sylv. ii. t. 93 (Catesb. Car. ii. t. 76). D. concolor, Moench. D. pubescens, Pursli, Fl. 

 i. 265 (var. microcarpa, Raf. Med. FL). — Woods and fields, Rhode Island ? and New York 

 near the coast, also from Ohio to Iowa, and south to Florida and Louisiana : fl. early 

 summer : fr. Oct. (Too near the N. Asiatic D. Lotus, L.) 



