86 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
GARDEN PLANTS— THEIR GEOGRAPHY— XLII. 
EBENALES. 
THE CHRYSOPHYLLUM, DIOSPYROS AND STYRAX 
ALLIANCE. 
For the most part this js a tropical and sub- 
tropical group of trees and shrubs consisting of 1 1 
tribes, 53 genera, and 885 species. They are often 
remarkable for the hardness of their wood, and 
many bear edible fruit. A few of the species ex- 
tend to the warm temperate regions, and about a 
score are available for cultivation in northern gar- 
dens where they flower handsomely and form a 
striking feature. The term Hbenus upon which the 
alliance is founded, now applies to a Mediterran- 
ean genus of Legumes, and it would seem more 
consistent if the tribes were known as Diospyrales. 
Chrysophylluin one of which is the West Indian 
“Star Apple,” has 60 species. Two or three forms 
are found in South Florida, C. monopyrenum seems 
to be a true native, but it is doubtful if the typical 
C. Cainito can be considered so. A variety called 
microphyllum however forms a small tree there, 
and in common 
with several 
other species is 
remarkable for 
the beautiful 
golden silky 
pubescence on 
the underside of 
the leaves. Sid- 
eroxylon mas- 
tichodend r o n , 
Dipholis salici- 
folia, and Mim- 
usops Sieberi 
have been re- 
ported from the 
same region. 
The latter forms 
a large tree 
which always 
has its heartwood decayed when it attains to great 
age. 
Diospyros includes a large number of trees known 
as “Ebony,” “Ironwood,” Persimmon,” Marble 
wood,’’ etc. There are 160 species two of which 
are natives of North America, and two of the tem- 
perate parts of Asia, one of which the ‘ ‘Date plum” 
is probably naturalized in southern Europe. D. 
Virginiana is very similar to this Asiatic D. Lotus, 
but both vary to some extent in the size of their 
fruit and in other ways. Some trees are sterile, 
but generally at southern points when given room 
they form quite handsome round headed trees, cov- 
ered in autumn with golden or reddish very astrin- 
gent fruit about the size of medlars, like which they 
require to be almost |ptten before they are eatable. 
Varieties are sometirries found whose fruit is of 
much larger size than is common and some districts 
in South Carolina, such as the vicinity of Sumter, 
nC)SPTKOS VIRGINIANA. — The “Persimmon Tree.” 
Garden and Forest . 
Claremont, and the Cooper river, have been famous 
for them. Some effort should be made to perpetu- 
ate such forms and perhaps raise hybrids between 
them and the Japanese D. Kaki. D. Texana is a 
shrub or small tree with dimeious flowers and 
smaller black astringent fruit. The Japanese trees 
have a considerable range northward in the Islands 
and if they 
are not con- 
founded with 
forms of D. 
Lotus, some 
of them 
should be 
hardier than 
the forms of 
D. Kaki in 
our gardens. 
The cultiva- 
, , ted forms 
DIOSPYROS KAKI. — I 6lh. . , , 
yield a really 
fine and agreeable fruit, but are not hardy except 
at southern points. They have been introduced 
to most temperate countries and the Japs dry the 
fruits in the mannnr of figs. D. pentamera is the 
“black myrtle” of Australia. Jas. MaePherson. 
