ABSTRACT
The only fruit that I have seen in Japan that particularly merits notice, is the kaki, a variety of Diospyros and belonging to the order Ebenaceae. It is really worthy of being introduced into the United States. Many kinds have been brought to me. One has a skin as thin as tissue paper, and the pulp resembles in flavor the Egyptian fig. Another variety has a thick rind and a finer pulp, while the taste strongly reminded me of the delicious mango of Siam and Bombay. The tree is very ornamental, and of rapid growth; it would no doubt, succeed in any part of the United States south of 37° of latitude. Unlike the persimmon of the United States, there is very little astringency in the skin of the fruit, and frost, which matures the persimmon greatly, injures the kaki. This fruit varies in size, but is always larger than its American relative, and some are seven inches in diameter; it is in season nearly three months. The Japanese dry it, when it will keep for some four months, and has a taste like that of the dried Smyrna
fig·
65 Ibid., 23:133 (Feb. 25, 1864). 66 Cultivator, ser. 3, 3:107 (April 1855). This article also appeared in DeBow’s Review, 18:616-617 (May 1855), and in the Thibodaux, La., Minerva, May 5, 1855, where it was reprinted from the New York Evening Post. 67 Letter from John Law, corresponding secretary of the Vandenburgh Horticultural Society Evansville Ind., Oct. 25, 1856, in Letters Received, vol. 7, 1855, no. 913. 68 Letter from Volney Burgess, Chatham, N. Y., Feb. 5, 1856, in ibid., vol. 10, 1856, no. 627. 69 Letter from A. G. Tobey, West Falmouth, Mass., Feb. 20, 1856, in ibid., vol. 10, 1856, no. 867. 70 Letter from D. Boll, New York City, June 9, 1856, In ibid., vol. 11, 1856, no. 667. 71 Country Gentleman, 6:300 (Nov. 8, 1855). 72 The Pawlonia tree was grown as far south as Texas. See Letter from J. M. Seymour of Galveston to John Adriance, July 31, 1847, in Adriance Papers, University of Texas, Austin (microfilm copy in Columbia University Library, Bancroft Foundation). “Japan Dark Green Yew,” “Japan Weeping Cypress,” “Japan Dwarf Cypress,” “Juniper Japan,” and “Arbor Vitae, Japan” were listed as commonly grown in the United States by a Brooklyn horticulturist in the New York Weekly Tribune, July 3, 1858.
