588 WILSON EXPEDITION TO CHINA 



(No. 7044). Western Szech'uan: Mien-chu Hsien, roadsides, alt. 

 600 m., May 19, 1908 (No. 2915; tree 13 m. tall, 1.5 m. girth, flowers 

 white); without locality, A. von Rosthorn (No. 2092). Yunnan: 

 Mi-le district, A. Henry (No. 9898) ; Mengtsze, A. Henry (Nos. 9898<^, 

 9898^). Chili: Peking, courtyard of Imperial Palace, September 18, 

 1903, C. S. Sargent; same locality. Temple grounds. Pagoda Hill, near 

 Summer Palace, September 17, 1903, C. S. Sargent; " Nankow to Great 

 Wall," October 5, 1905, J. G. Jack; " Ying-tan Ko, along a mountain 

 stream," September 12, 1913, F. N. Meyer (Nos. 46, 1297) ; " near 

 Changh," October 1905, F. N. Meyer (No. 183). Shensi : " Huo-kia- 

 Zaez," July 16, 1897, G. Giraldi; mountains near " Nanto-tchu," Jan- 

 uary 21, 1914, F. N. Meyer (No. 1391). 



This tree is common in thickets and on the margins of woods in western Hupeh, 

 where it is undoubtedly indigenous, and it is plentiful in the valleys of western 

 Szech'uan. It grows to a large size and trees 26 m. tall with trunks 4 m. in girth 

 are occasionally met with. The bark is striking, being very dark and deeply 

 fissured and broken into thick, irregular, more or less square blocks. The year- 

 old shoots are smooth and usually pale gray, but occasionally they are slightly 

 purplish. The winter-buds are prominent, acute and glabrous. The leaves are 

 dark shining green above, pale, even subglaucous beneath and vary considerably 

 in the degree of pubescence. The subsessile globose fruit as it ripens changes to 

 yellow and finally to bloomy purplish black. In central and western China this 

 tree is colloquially known as the Kou-shihtzu and there as elsewhere in China 

 and also in Japan it is used as the stock in grafting D. kaki Linnaeus. 



Meyer states that his No. 1391 is D. kaki and is the " original wild persimmon." 

 Our specimen of this number consists of leafless twigs with a number of adherent 

 calyces, but the winter-buds show that it belongs to D. Lotus. We have not seen 

 D. Balfouriana Diels in Not. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh, V. 209 {PI. Chin. Forrest.) 

 (1912), but Henry's No. 9898 D, which Diels says is very similar, is without doubt 

 D. Lotus. Matsumura does not admit D. Lotus as indigenous to Japan and Wilson 

 certainly saw no wild tree during his travels in Japan, though it is not uncommon 

 in cultivation. In all probability this species was introduced with or at about 

 the same time as D. kaki. Pictures of this tree will be found under Nos. 270, 570 

 of the collection of Wilson's photographs and also in his Vegetation oj Western 

 China, Nos. 204, 205. 



Diospyros kaki Linnaeus f., Suppl. 439 (1781). — Thunberg, Fl. 

 Jap. 157 (1784). — Loureiro, Fl Cochin. 226 (1790). — Wight, Icon. 

 PL Ind. Or. II. 415 t. (1843). — Hiern in Trans. Camh. Phil. Soc. XII. 

 227, fig. (Monog. Ehen.) (1873) . — Bretschneider, Early Europ. Re- 

 search. Fl. China, 5, 23, 29 (1881). — Clarke in Hooker f., Fl. Brit, 

 Ind. III. 555 (1882). — Hemsley in Jour. Linn. Soc. XXVI. 69 (1889); 

 in Bot. Mag. CXXXIII. t. 8127 (1907) ; in Kew Bull. Misc. Inform. 

 1911, 235. — Sargent in Garden & Forest, VI. 273 (1893); For. Fl. 

 Jap. 50 (1894). — Diels in Bot. Jahrb. XXIX. 527 (1900). — F. N. 



