634 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



Frequent on the salt marshes of the coast and lower Delaware 

 bay. 



Fl. — Late July into September. 



Coast Strip.— S3.nAy Hook, Shark River, Manasquan, Pt. Pleasant, Forked 

 River, Barnegat Pier, Spray Beach (L), Barrel Island (L), Tuckerton, Ab- 

 secon (Bassett), Atlantic City, Ocean City, Avalon, Stone Harbor (S), 

 Anglesea, Wildwood, Cold Springs (S), Cape May. 



Order EBENALES. 



Family EBENACE^. Ebony, Persimmon, etc. 



DIOSPYROS L. 



Diospyros virginiana L. Persimmon. 



Diospyros virginiana Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 1057- I7S3 [North America].— Barton, 

 Fl. Phila. II. 198. 1818.— Knieskern 21.— Britton 166. 



Common in fields and thickets of the Middle and Coast dis- 

 tricts south to Cape May; casual north of the fall line in the 

 northern counties — Morris, Hunterdon, Somerset, Essex, Union, 

 Hudson — but apparently absent from the Pine Barrens, except 

 along the edges. 



The Persimmon is one of the typical Carolinian trees which 

 give to the low woods of western New Jersey their austral tone. 

 Its distribution is identical with that of the Opossum, which likes 

 so well to feed upon the ripe fruit and, also, it has always seemed 

 to me, of the country darkey and his little cabin, the type of 

 darkey whose name is so closely associated with both 'Possum 

 and 'Simmons in the folk lore of the south. All three may be 

 found in Chester and Delaware Counties in Pennsylvania, but 

 no farther back than the true Carolinian fauna and flora extend. 



There is quite a difference in the fruit of different trees, some 

 bearing decidedly ovoid fruit, while on others it is merely globu- 

 lar. As the leaves fall in mid-October the Persimmons become 

 quite conspicuous, hanging tightly on the branches, their bright, 

 russet-red coats shining in the sun ; but their proper flavor is not 

 acquired and the astringency modified until they are touched by 

 frost and their skin somewhat wrinkled and turned purple; and 

 those that are picked up from among the frost-covered leaves 

 in late November or December are perhaps the best of all. 



