VACCINIACEAE 299 



Grows in wet woods and sour swamps. Not as common in 



Alabama as in some states farther north and east. 



2A. Winston, Cullman and DeKalb Counties (Mohr; including J\ pal- 

 lidum) . 



4. Clay County. 



5. Lee County (Baker & Earle). 

 6A. Marion County. 



6B. Autauga County. 



6C. Prattville (Mohr; V. fitscatnm). 



13 or 14. Near David's Lake, Mobile County (Mohr; var. aiiwoium). 



15. Near Zundel's, Baldwin County (Mohr, V. fuscafuni). 



EBENACEAE. Ebony Family. 



About T genera and 27 5 species, trees and shrubs, mostly 

 tropical. 



DIOSPYROS, Linnaeus. 



This genus includes over 100 species, mostly Asiatic, some 

 yielding fruit and some valuable wood. The ebony is one of them. 



Diospyros Virginiana, L. Persimmon. 



A medium-sized deciduous tree, too well known to every 

 southerner to require any description. The wood is very heavy, 

 hard, strong and compact, and is one of the best for shuttles. It 

 is said to be also used for boot and shoe findings and interior fin- 

 ish. (See Cuno and Fletcher in bibliography.) The green fruit 

 is very astringent, and dyes fabrics black. Decoctions of it and 

 of the bark have been used medicinally. The ripe fruit is sweet 

 and edible, and seems to run into several varieties, differing in 

 shape, size, number of seeds, time of ripening, etc. Some are al- 

 most seedless. 



There is a widespread belief or tradition that the persimmon 

 fruit does not lose its astringency until after frost ; and that may 

 be true toward its northern limits, and of some individual trees in 

 all parts of its range, but I have seen ripe ones in Autauga County 

 the last week in August, and they can probably be found almost 

 anywhere in the state by the middle of September. The fruit 

 could probably be improved by cultivation, but that does not seem 

 to have been undertaken yet. 



The persimmon is widely distributed over the state, in almost 

 every kind of soil, but it is mostly a weed in old fields and along 



