786 



Persimmon 



and Texas, reaching a maximum height of about 35 meters, but even with this 

 great height its trunlc is seldom more than a meter thicic; its branching is very 

 irregular. 



The thick hard bark is dark brown or black, irregularly fissured into small 

 blocks; the young twigs are reddish brown and somewhat hairj^ becoming smooth 

 after the first season; the winter buds are ovoid, pointed, with numerous purphsh 

 shining scales. The leaves are hair}' when young, but become smooth when old; 

 they var}' from 8 to 16 cm. in length, are ovate or oval, pointed, strongly pinnately 



Fig. 717. — Persimmon Trees, Trenton, N. J. 



veined, vari'ing at the base from narrowed to somewhat heart-shaped, the upper 

 surface dark green, the under surface pale; their stalks are from 8 to 20 mm. long, 

 and separate readily from the twigs in drying. The flowers are yellowish green 

 and dicecious, the sterile on one tree, the fertile fruit-forming ones on another, 

 the former usually in small clusters, the latter usually sohtan-. Both kinds of 

 flowers ha\'e usually 4-lobed corollas; the fertile flowers have a pointed ovary, 

 hain' toward the top, surmounted by 4 slender styles, and mostly 8, short sterile 



