EBONY FAMILY 
persistent calyx. It ripens in late autumn, is pale orange 
with a red cheek, often covered with a slight glaucous bloom. 
One of the delights of the natives 
in the south is to induce strangers 
to taste this fruit, for its bitter as- 
tringency is something that can be 
known only by experience. The 
frost is required to make it edible, 
but having been subjected to this 
influence it becomes sweet, juicy 
and delicious. This peculiar as- 
Sait prie Paainancatiun tringency is due to the presence of 
ros virginiana. a tannin similar to that of Cinchona. 
The fruit is much appreciated in the 
southern states and appears abundantly in the markets. It is 
much sought by the opossum, who is supposed to fatten upon 
it, and the combination of persimmon, opossum and negro 
was very common in the slave songs of ante-bellum days. 
The tree is greatly inclined to vary in the character and 
quality of its fruit, in size this varies from that of a small 
cherry to a small apple. Some trees in the south produce 
fruit which is delicious without the action of the frost, while 
adjoining trees produce fruit that never becomes edible. 
Several varieties of the species, Diospyros Kaki have been 
cultivated in China and Japan from most ancient times. In- 
deed this seems to be the universally cultivated fruit tree of 
Japan, is there found in every garden and by every cottage. 
The Japanese horticulturists have developed it into almost 
as many varieties as our gardeners have made of the apple 
tree. Some of these have been introduced into California 
and are said to flourish there. The California persimmon 
often offered for sale in our northern markets is the product 
of this Japanese tree. 
The Persimmon is very common in the southern and Gulf 
states, and because of its stoloniferous roots frequently 
makes extensive thickets in abandoned fields and along the 
roadsides and fences. 
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