6 
BULLETIN 1436, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
the species of which are chiefly tropical. The name "date plum" 
is supposed to have been adopted from the practice of the Vir- 
ginia Indians, who dried the fruit and preserved it like dates. 
The generic name Diospyros comes from the Greek words "Dios" 
(the Greek god Zeus) and "puros" (wheat), which together may 
be interpreted " food for the gods." 
The persimmon common to the eastern United States, Diospyros 
virgirdcma (fig. 4) is found on light sandy well-drained soil, or, 
in the Mississippi basin, on the deep rich bottom lands or river 
valleys. It occurs as far north as Five Mile Point, near New Haven, 
Fig. 4. — The natural range of persimmon, with the estimated stand of commercially 
available timber in certain States expressed in cords. (M=1,000 cords) 
Conn., and is found on Long Island, N. Y. It ranges through south- 
eastern Pennsylvania and southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to 
southeastern Iowa, eastern Kansas, central Oklahoma, and south- 
ward to the Gulf and to De Soto County, Fla. It is very common 
in the South Atlantic and Gulf States, often covering abandoned 
fields with shrubby growth and springing up by the sides of roads 
and fences. It ascends the Appalachian Mountains sparingly to 
an altitude of 3,500 feet. Toward the western limits of its range 
it is rare. In Missouri*; Arkansas, and eastern Kansas and Okla- 
homa occur several varieties of D, virginicma. There is also a 
