The New Student's Reference Work/Ebony

Eb′ony, a species of Diospyros, plants of the ebony family.  The American representative is the common persimmon (D. virginiana).  There are 180 species in the tropics and a very few in the temperate regions.  Most of the species have valuable hardwood, but it is from certain of the tropical ones that the commercial ebony is obtained.  D. ebenum, a tree becoming about 50 feet high and growing in the East Indies, is said to yield the best ebony.