Trees Preferring to Grow in Sandy or 

 Rocky Soil: Hillsides and Barrens. 



" Father, thy hand 

 Hath reared these venerable columns, thou 

 Didst weave this verdant roof. Thou didst look down 

 Upon the naked earth, and, fortJnv'ith, rose 

 All tJiese fair ranks of trees. They, in t/iy sun. 

 Budded, and shook their green leaves in thy breeze^ 

 And shot tozuards heaven. The century-living crow 

 Whose birth zoas in their tops, grezo old and died 

 A niong their branches, till at last, they stood, 

 As 7101V they stand, massy, and tall, and dark. 

 Fit shrine for humble zvorshipper to hold 

 Communion luith his maker." 



A Forest Hymn. — BRYANT. 



PERSinnON. DATE-PLUM. {Plate CXXVI.) 



Diosp)ros Virginia7ia. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT 



Ebony. Rciioid-tofipcd; branches, zo-bafeet or 

 spyeiiding or pendulous. h igher. 



RANGE 

 Rhode Island south- 



ivard to I'la. and 

 west-vard to Illinois. 



TIME OF BLOOM 



May. June. 

 Fruit: Sept.-A'or. 



Bark: almost black or tinp;ed with ret! ; rough and divided into plates ; as- 

 tringent. Lc'dZYs : three to fi\e inches lonu; ; simple ; alternate ; with short, 

 pubescent petioles; broadlv-lanceolate or (.'val, with pointed apex anrl pointed, 

 rounded or cordate bnse ; dark c;recn and lustrous above, pale and dull under- 

 neath ; thick ; the whole leaf bordered with a delicate fringe, and ]iubescent 

 when young. Ficnuers : small; greenish vcllow ; the staminate ones mostly 

 clustered, the pistillate ones, solitarv; axillary. Cn/yx : four-iiartcd. Corolla: 

 bell-shaped; four-cleft. Fruit: gl<)l)ose ; almost sessile; astringent when 

 green; when ri])e reddish orange or rusty brown ; edible; sweet; clinging to 

 the branches until the beginning of winter. 



In the fresh, green days of its youth, the fruit of the persim- 



