DATE PLUM, Diospyros, a genus of plants of the natural order ebenacerc, consisting of deciduous trees, whose fruit is a globose berry, natives of warm or temperate climates. The black heartwood of some species is ebony (q.v.), and the hard timber of others is known as Inoxw000. Some are valued for their fruit. The COMMON DATE PLUM, or PISIIAMIN, also called the EUROPEAN LOTUS and the DATE OF TREBIZOND (D. lotus), is a tree of 20 to 40 ft. in height, with oblong shining leaves and small reddish white flowers, a native of the coasts of the Caspian sea, Mauritania, etc., but cultivated and naturalized in the s. of Europe. Its fruit is of the size of a cherry, and in favorable climates larger, yellow, sweet, and astringent. It is eaten when over-ripe, like the medlar, or is used for conserves. The tree bears fruit abundantly in the neighborhood of London, but is somewhat tender in the climate of Britain, and its fruit more austere than in more southern regions. This fruit has been supposed by some to be the lotus (q.v.) of the lotophagi. The VIRGINIAN DATE PLUM, or PEnSIMON (D. Virginiana), is a tree of 30 to 60
ft. high, with ovate oblong leaves and pale-yellow flowers, a native of the southern states of North America, where one tree often yields several bushels of fruit. The fruit is about the size of a bullace, reddish, with six to eight oval seeds. It is not palatable till mellowed by frost, and is sweet and astringent. A kind of beer or cider and an ardent spirit are made from it.—The mabola (D. mabola) is cultivated as a fruit-tree in the isle of France. Its fruit is about the size of a quince, and has a very agreeable tlavor.—The kaki (D. kaki), sometimes called the KEG-FIG, is a Japanese tree, some times kept in green-houses in France and England. The sweetmeat called ,figues-eaques is made from this fruit in France. The fruit resembles a plum. It is occasionally brought from China as a dried sweetmeat.—The fruit of some other species of diospyroa is also edible, as that of D. decandra, a large yellow berry, which, notwithstanding a disagreeable smell, is sold in the markets of Cochin-China.