Largely for gunpowder, charcoal, also furniture. Weight of Seasoned Wood in Pounds per Cubic Foot. 43. Modulus of Elasticity. 1,190,000. Modulus of Rupture. 12,000. Remarks. A beautiful ornamental tree. [p111] [Illustration: PLATE 23. PERSIMMON, OSAGE ORANGE, CHERRY (_Diospyros_), (_Maclura_), (_Prunus_). Osage Orange Trunk (_M. aurantiaca_). Wild Black Cherry Trunk (_P. scrotina_). Cherry Wood. Osage Orange Wood. Persimmon Wood.] PERSIMMON. OSAGE ORANGE. CHERRY. (_Diospyros_.) (_Maclura_.) (_Prunus_.) The Persimmon (_Diospyros virginiana_) grows in many of the central and southern United States and affords a hard, tough wood, resembling fine-grain hickory, that is used for implements and other small work. The plum-like fruit is remarkably astringent when green, but is sweet, rich, and palatable when ripe. The persimmon is a member of the ebony family (_Ebenaceæ_), and the extremely close-grained heartwood is almost black. The ebony of commerce is derived from tropical species of this genus. The Osage Orange or Bois D'Arc (_Maclura aurantiaca_) is found in the Gulf and neighboring States, and has been cultivated in the North. The wood is unusually hard and strong, and is of a yellow color, which, however, darkens with age. It is in many ways a unique and serviceable product, widely utilized locally in the South, but almost unknown in the North, and nowhere sufficiently appreciated. The aborigines made bows and arrows of it, whence the name Bois D'Arc. The tree affords a useless fruit somewhat resembling the common orange in appearance. The widely distributed Wild Cherry or Wild Black Cherry (_Prunus serotina_) supplies the cherry wood of commerce. This wood is strong, hard, fine-grained, red-colored, and one of the most popular decorative woods of the American forests. Sweet or Cherry Birch (_Betula lenta_) is often stained so as to imitate it, while it of itself is stained so as to resemble mahogany. The wood of the cultivated cherry is not used in the United States. The wild cherry bears purplish-black fruit somewhat larger than peas, sweetly bitter when ripe. The bark is also bitter. It should be noted of these woods that the thin heart of the persimmon is black, that of the Bois d'Arc is yellow, and that of the cherry is red. Each receives a high polish. [p112] PERSIMMON. _Diospyros virginiana Linn._ Nomenclature. (Sudworth.) Persimmon (local and common name). Date Plum (N. J., Tenn.). Simmon, Possumwood (Fla.). Plaqueminier (La.). Locality. Connecticut to Florida, westward intermittently to Missouri and Texas. Features of Tree. Occasionally seventy feet in height, one to two feet in diameter. Soft plum-like fruit, astringent when green, sweet when ripe. Color, Appearance, or Grain of Wood.