PERSIMMON 
In respect to the power of making heartwood, the Locust 
and the Persimmon stand at the extreme opposite ends of 
the list. The Locust changes its sapwood into heartwood 
almost at once, while the Persimmon rarely develops any 
heartwood until it is nearly one hundred years old. This 
heartwood is extremely close-grained and almost black, 
Really, it 1s ebony, but our climate 1s not favorable to its 
production. The ebony of commerce is derived from five 
different tropical species of the genus, two from India, one 
from Africa, one from Malaya and one from Mauritius. The 
beautiful variegated coromandel wood is the product of a 
species found in Ceylon, 
Although Déospyros is now pre-eminently a tropical tree, 
enduring but indifferently the cold of the temperate regions, 
its fossil remains are found in the miocene rocks of Green- 
land and Alaska and in the cretaceous formation of Ne- 
braska. 
