TROPICAL FRUITS 209 



never pruned with a knife, the belief being that iron causes injury to the 

 branches ; they are therefore thinned by breaking with the hand. The soil 

 most suitable for the persimmon is loam, and a top-dressing of manure 

 should be given annually, say in March. Night soil is used in Japan for this 

 purpose. 



Professor Sargent, in his "Forest Flora of Japan" (1893), says: "The 

 persimmon is planted everywhere in the neighbourhood of houses, which, in 

 the interior of the main island, are often embowered in small groves of this 

 handsome tree. In shape it resembles a well-grown apple tree, with a straight 

 trunk, spreading branches which droop toward the extremities and form a 

 compact round head. Trees 30 to 40 feet high are often seen, and in the 

 autumn when they are covered with fruit, and the leaves have turned to the 

 colour of old Spanish red leather, they are exceedingly handsome. 



" Perhaps there is no tree, except the orange, which as a fruit tree is so 

 beautiful as the Kaki. In Central and Northern Japan the variety which pro- 

 duces large, orange-coloured, ovate, thick-skinned fruit is the only one planted, 

 and the cultivation of the red-fruited varieties with which we have become 

 acquainted in this country is confined to the south. A hundred varieties of 

 Kaki at least are now recognised and named by Japanese gardeners, but few of 

 them are important commercially in any part of the country which we visited, 

 and, except in Kyoto, where red Kakis appeared, the only form I saw exposed 

 for sale was the orange-coloured variety, which, fresh and dried, is consumed in 

 immense quantities by the Japanese, who eat it, as they do all their fruits, 

 before it is ripe, and while it has the texture and consistency of a paving-stone 1 



" Diospyros Kaki is hardy in Pekin, with a climate similar to that of New 

 England, and fully as trying to plant-life ; it fruits in Southern Yezo, and 

 decorates every garden in the elevated provinces of Central Japan, where the 

 winter climate is intensely cold. There appears, therefore, to be no reason 

 why it should not flourish in New England, if plants of a northern race can be 

 obtained ; and, so far as climate is concerned, the tree, which in the central 

 mountain districts of Hondo covers itself with fruit year after year, will certainly 

 succeed in all our Alleghany region from Pennsylvania southward. In this 

 country (United States) we have considered the Kaki a tender plant, unable to 

 survive outside the region where the orange flourishes. This is true of the 

 southern varieties which have been brought to this country, and which may 

 have originated in a milder climate than southern Japan, for the Kaki is a plant 

 of wide distribution, either natural or through cultivation in south-eastern 

 Asia. But the northern Kaki, the tree of Pekin and the gardens of central 

 Japan, has probably not yet been tried in this country. If it succeeds in the 

 northern and middle states it will give us a handsome new fruit of good quality, 

 easily and cheaply raised, of first-rate shipping quality when fresh, valuable when 

 dried, and an ornamental tree of extraordinary interest and beauty." 



The names of the varieties are Japanese. The following is a selection : — 



Hachiya. — Produced at Hachiya, in the province of Mine. Fruit very large, 

 oblong, pointed, a little flattened at the base ; skin rich red, black at the end when quite 

 ripe ; Jlesk when bletted juicy, very rich, delicious in flavour. 



O 



