NEW PLANT IMMIGRANTS 
901 
ae 
Photo by Frank N. Meyer 
GIANT ORIENTAL PERSIMMON TREE 
The trees of these Chinese persimmons are remarkable for vigor, productiveness, and 
long life. 
different from our Virginia persimmon. 
why it should not take its place among 
the great fruits of the country. 
We have also introduced a Chinese 
persimmon which Mr. Frank Meyer 
found in the Ming Tombs Valley, the 
Tamopan, four inches in diameter, seed- 
less and puckerless. 
The whole question of the improve- 
ment of the persimmon has been opened 
up, and we are getting for this work the 
small-fruited species called “lotus,” from 
Algeria; a tropical species with white, 
cheese-like pulp, from Manila, Mexico, 
Frithea, and Rhodesia; species from 
Bangalore, from Sydney, from Madras, 
from the Nankau Pass, in China, and 
from the Caucasus. 
The fruits are quite distinct from the Japanese persimmons, or kaki, and entirely 
They may be said to constitute a new and valuable 
class of fruit for the American horticulturist. 
There are large areas of the West 
where the native persimmon is _ the 
slowest tree to wake up in the warm 
spells that visit that region in February. 
It is reported that in Oklahoma last Feb- 
ruary the temperature went up to 80 
degrees F., which is as high as the aver- 
age midsummer temperature. This will 
wake up almost any tree or plant except 
the persimmon, and when a temperature 
of 17 degrees below zero follows, it kills 
thousands of plants to the ground. If 
the fine imported varieties can by breed- 
ing be made to share this characteristic 
with their American relatives, it will be 
an added reason for their extensive culti- 
vation. 
