Date Plum

Date Plum (Diospyros), a genus of Ebenaceæ, important for timber (see EBONY, IRONWOOD) and fruit. The Common Date Plum or Pishamin, also called the European Lotus and the Date of Trebizond (D. lotus), is a tree of 18 to 30 feet in height, with oblong shining leaves and small reddish-white flowers, a native of the coasts of the Caspian Sea, Northern Africa, &c., but cultivated and naturalised in the south of Europe. It can also be grown in the south of England. Its fruit is of the size of a cherry, and in favourable climates larger, yellow, sweet, and astringent. It is eaten when over-ripe, like the medlar, or is used for conserves. This fruit has been supposed by some to be the Lotus (q.v.) of the Lotophagi. The Virginian Date Plum, or Persimmon (D. virginiana), is a tree of 30 to 60 feet 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 one inch in diameter, 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. D. Mabola is cultivated as a fruit-tree in Mauritius. D. Kaki, sometimes called the Keg-fig, is a native of Japan, which occasionally is kept in greenhouses in France and England. The sweetmeat called Fiques-caques is made from this fruit in France. The fruit of some other species is also edible—e.g. D. decandra of Cochin-China.