Fruit Interests. 



29 



year." The nomenclature of the varieties is much confused, 

 but there are, probably, no more than a dozen clearly marked 

 sorts. The fruit is now beginning to be known on the markets. 

 Garden and Forest makes the following interesting notes upon 

 this beautiful fruit : 



" The fruit of the Japanese persimmon, or Kaki, can still be found [early 

 December, 1889] in the markets of New York in great abundance, and of ex- 

 traordinary beauty and excellence. It is raised in Florida and Georgia, 

 where the Kaki has been planted in large quantities. It is by far the hand- 

 somest dessert fruit which the market affords at this season of the year ; 

 but it is a question whether the Kaki really possesses as good a flavor as one 

 of our thoroughly ripened and frosted native persimmons from Georgia or 

 Virginia, a fruit which some people consider about the best that grows. A 

 cross between the American and Japanese species might be expected to pro- 

 duce a fruit of larger size and finer color than that of the former, and with 

 a richer flavor than any of the cultivated forms of Kaki. The Asiatic per- 

 simmon, according to Rein, is ' undeniably the most widely distributed, most 

 important and most beautiful fruit tree in Japan, Corea and northern China. 

 In Japan it endures night frosts at a temperature of from twelve to sixteen 

 degrees C. It can be cultivated high up in the valleys and far beyond the 

 limit of the Bamboo cane. It is a stately tree, after the fashion of a pear 

 tree, with beautiful deciduous leaves, almost as large as those of some mag- 

 nolias, but of bright green color and resembling those of the pear in shape 

 only. The new leaves come in May; it blossoms in June ; the season of 

 ripe fruit is late in autumn, from the middle of September until the end of 

 November. There are many kinds of Kaki, ranking in size from a small 

 hen's egg to a big apple. Some are nearly spherical, others oblong, others 

 heart-shaped. In color of the outer skin they run from light orange-yellow 

 to deep orange-red. They are distinguished also by their taste, which is 

 pleasant in its way and reminds one of tomatoes, as does the color also. 

 They are eaten not only in a soft doughy condition, in which those of the 

 Migako-no-djo, in the province of Hiuga, are prized most highly, but the 

 fruit is gathered while still hard, to ripen afterward. The best in Japanese 

 estimation are Tarngaki, that is, tub persimmons, which have been con- 

 verted from astringent into sweet fruit by being kept in an old sake tub. 

 The bitter astringent taste of all green Kaki remains, even in the ripe fruit, 

 in the case of most varieties, and it is from these that, during the summer, 

 an astringent fluid, rich in tannin, is prepared (called Shibu), an acid of con- 

 siderable importance in several industries.' When over-ripe and dried in 

 the sun, pressed somewhat flat, and then put away in boxes, the sweet Kaki 

 get to look and taste, in a few months, when skinned, like dried figs, and are 

 used like them. The white powder which covers these dried persimmons in 

 boxes is natural sugar that has exuded from the fruit. 'In September the 

 Kaki tree, laden with large, orange-colored fruit, is a great ornament to the 

 landscape. This beauty it preserves till it loses its leaves in October.' " 



Several Chinese peaches are widely distributed in the 

 south and are valuable. The best known of these is the 

 Honey, which originated so long ago as 1854. It was raised 

 by Charles Downing from a pit from China, and was dis- 



