142 PEACTICAL FOEBSTKT. 



DiosPTEOS. — Persimmon. 



A large genus of handsome trees of the Ebony Familj. 

 Flowers polygamous or dicecious, the fertile ones solitary, and 

 the sterile smaller and in clusters. Eepresented in the United 

 States by two species. 



Diospyros Virginiana, Linn. — Persimmon. — ^Leaves ovate-ob- 

 long, smooth, dark-green, with very short peduncles. Flowers 

 pale yellow or greenish, four-cleft. Fruit lai-ge, plum-like, con- 

 taining four to eight seeds. The fruit is quite variable in size, 

 shape, and quality. The most common form is round, but oc- 

 casional varieties may be found with oblong or oval fruit. 

 The taste of all is intensely acerb or astringent while green, but 

 becoming eatable, and in some instances of excellent flavor, 

 when ripe. In the Northern States, the persimmon seldom 

 ripens until touched with frost, still there are varieties which 

 ripen earlier, and are fuUy mature a month before the arrival 

 of frosts. The persimmon is a fruit well worthy of the atten- 

 tion of our pomologists, and could, no doubt, be greatly im- 

 proved by cultivation, and new varieties produced equal to 

 that of any species of the same genus found in other parts of 

 the world. An occasional variety is found with almost seed- 

 less fruit, or at most containing only one or two seeds. Im- 

 proved varieties may be readily mtdtipUed by budding or 

 grafting upon seedlings of the wild trees. A handsome, orna- 

 mental tree with clean, bright foliage, and very heavy, close- 

 grained, dark-brown wood. In rich soils, this tree sometimes 

 reaches a bight of sixty to seventy feet. In Southern Connec- 

 ticut, Northern New Jersey, and southward to Florida. Also 

 abundant in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa, and south- 

 ward. 



D. Texanaj Scheele. — ^Mexican Persimmon. — Leaves cuneate- 

 oblong, round at the apex, and only an inch or two long and 

 somewhat downy. Flowers sUky, tomentose on the outside. 

 Fruit downy when young, round, black when matured, contain- 

 ing three to eight triangular seeds. Fruit of excellent quality, said 

 to ripen in August. A small tree twenty to thirty feet idgh, 

 with white, but heavy wood. Southern and Western Texas, 

 and in Mexico. The species are pretty widely distributed over 

 the world, in Europe, Asia, New Holland, the East and West 

 Indies, and several of the larger Islands furnish one or more. 

 The Date-Plum of Europe (D. Lotus), has furnished material 



