Abstract
At harvest, the occurrence of poorly-filled, imperfect (I) and well-filled, perfect (P) persim- mon seeds, their frequency and size in cvs. Jiro and Maekawa-Jiro were compared with sever- al other cultivars.
1. Poorly-filled seeds of 'Jiro' and 'Maekawa-Jiro' became evident early in the growth period of the fruit; they were thinner than the well-filled normal appearing ones and parts of them became discolored (blackened) in late July. In September, they were almost entirely black.
2. Imperfect seeds were most numerous in 'Jiro' and 'Maekawa-Jiro', moderate in 'Hanagosho' and 'Zenjimaru'; and the fewest in 'Saijo', 'Matsumotowase-Fuyu', and 'Fuyu'. They occurred in fruits with or without perfect seeds.
3. At harvest the width and length of imperfect seeds were smaller or of equal size com- pared with those of perfect seeds. The average seed size in 'Jiro' and 'Maekawa-Jiro' was larger than those of other cvs. The thickness and fresh weight of imperfect seeds were al- ways less than those of perfect ones.
4. In 'Jiro' and 'Maekawa-Jiro', 3040% of the imperfect seeds was embryoless, whereas 15% of the perfect seeds, which appeared normal, lacked an embryo.
