THE PERSIMMONS - FAMILY EBENACEAE. Genus DIOSPYROS, Linn. ROUND-HEADED trees, with zigzag branchlets and no terminal buds; wood hard and close grained. Leaves leathery, entire, simple, alternate, deciduous. Flowers dicecious, axillary; stam inate in cymes, pistillate solitary or paired. Fruit a large, juicy berry, 1 to to-seeded.
KeY TO SPECIES A. Leaves 4 to 6 inches long, pointed; fruit t to 2 inches in diameter, orange to brown when ripe.
(D. Virginiana) PERSIMMON AA. Leaves it to I. inches long, blunt; fruit i to I inch in diameter, black when ripe.
(D. Texana) BLACK PERSIMMON The ebony family has five genera, the most important of which is Diospyros. This genus contains 18o species, including among them the two temperate zone trees in America, and others of horticultural importance in Japan and China. The ebony of commerce comes from different tropical species. D: Ebenuni, native of Ceylon and the East Indies, produces the most valuable wood. Beside lumber, ebonies furnish fruit trees and ornamentals planted for their lustrous foliage and decorative fruits. Some of the tropical species are grown in Northern greenhouses.
Persimmon (Diospyros Virginiana, Linn.)—A slender. tall tree with handsome round head, rarely over 5o feet high; twigs angular, often hollow. Bark broken into thick scaly plates, dark grey or brown; twigs reddish, pubescent, becoming grey. Wood very hard, dark brown, with pale sap wood, fine grained, tough, like hickory; not durable in soil. Buds small, pointed, reddish. Leaves alternate, simple. oval, pointed, 4 to 6 inches long, thick, shining above, paler beneath; petioles short, stout. Flowers, June, after leaves, dicecious, small, yellowish green; staminate in 3-flowered cymes, scarcely opening; pistillate solitary, wide open, with imperfect stamens. Fruit a reddish yellow berry i to 1-1 inches in diameter, pulpy, sweet, edible when ripe; astringent when green. Preferred habitat, light, sandy soil, or moist woodlands, fence rows and abandoned fields. Dis tribution, Rhode Island to Florida; west to Kansas and Texas. Uses: Worthy of planting for its rich green foliage in late summer, and its graceful habit. Comes readily from seed, but is trans
planted with difficulty. shows little improvement in culti vation. Wood is used in turnery, for shoe lasts, plane stocks and shuttles.
There is no better way to fix the persimmon tree indelibly in the mind than to yield to the importunities of Southern friends and taste the fruit before it is ripe. You will be quite willing after that to wait until the frost (or whatever influence it is) mellows the puckery little plum. A traveller in the colony of Virginia wrote his friends in England about "the pessemins that grow on a most high tree." He describes them, with a fervency born of experience, as "harsh and choakie and furre in a man's mouth like allam!" Some of us say, "Amen!" Possibly some part of the persimmon's popularity is due to its exclusiveness. Certainly no other tree keeps its fruit so far out of reach of eager hands and thirsty lips. "The longest pole takes the persimmon," is a proverb that has passed the bounds of the Southern States, and taken on a much broader significance than its originator probably intended.
The persimmon tree is not confined to the South, though its finest proportions are reached in Oklahoma forests, and it "feels the cold" in Ohio and New York. Northerners are likely to content themselves with a taste even when the fruit is at its best. It is strangely different from other things. But the Southerner born and bred knows and delights in this native fruit. The Negro revels in it, and begrudges the opossum all he steals, forgetting that a 'simmon tree when fruit is ripe belongs to the first comer. "'Possums an' simmons come together, an' bofe is good fruit." This statement sums up the feelings of the Negro on two vital topics. The opossum camps down in the neighbourhood of a well-laden persimmon tree and fattens on its fruit; but the defrauded darkey who marked that tree for his own can afford to keep his temper. The fat 'possum on his table on Thanksgiving day is especially delicate for this 'simmon feast, with which it tops off the season. So there is no question but that he laughs best who laughs last.