\ 



22 



BULLETIN 223^ U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE 



m 



usually long, from 3 up to 4 or 5 feet, and 1^ to 1 J inches broad on 

 mature trees. The fruiting head, or portion bearing the strands, is 

 short, the strands numerous, often 18 to 24 inches, or occasionally 

 27 to 30 inches long, sometimes forked- The proximal naked 

 portion of the strand (one-third to one-half of the length) is sharply 

 and irregularly quadrangular in cross section, the fruiting por- 

 tion irregularly oval, with short zigzag angles. From 20 to 30 

 fruits are sometimes set on a single strand. With the growth of 



the fruit in weight, 

 the stalk curves 



downward, till the 

 entire load often 



hangs suspended 

 nearly vertically. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE 

 HAVANY VARIETY. 



(Birket el Haggi, Birket el 

 Hajji,^ Birket el Hadji.) 



J* 



The trees of the 

 Hay any variety 

 have rather slender 

 trunks and mod- 

 erate outcurve of 

 leaves, forming a 

 broadly vase- 

 shaped top- 



Theleaf bases are 

 rather coarse, 



broadly wedge 



IG. 12.— A bunch of dates of the Deglet Noor variety, showing the fruit 



stalk, or sobata; the fruiting head, or portion on which tho strands are 



home; and the strands, or shamrokh, comprising the clear area and the shaped, UarrOWlU 

 fruiting area. 



abruptly to 



a 



medium 



wedge-shaped petiole. The rachis is c 



dorsally, and the lateral faces rather broad, the size diminish- 



gradually 



grace and flexibility toward 



* Several trees of this variety were received by the Office of Poreign Seed and Plant Introduction under 

 the name of "Birket el Haggi'^ from Mr. Em. C. Zervudachi, of Alexandria, Egypt, in 1901, and listed 

 under S. P. I. No. 7635. Upon fmiting they proved to be identical with ''Hayany/' S. P. I. No. 6438, 

 secured by Mr. Fairohild earlier in the same year. Hayany is the correct name of the variety, which is 

 the most numerous and most popular date of Lower Egypt. The name *' Birket el Haggi" is only men- 

 tioned among Egj'ptian dates by Delchevalerie, who erroneously mistook the locality designation for the 

 real name of the variety. 



On the writer's visit to the Birket el Hagg district in September, 1913, he found that the people knew of 

 no date named " Birket el Haggi," but that they had thousands of '* Hayany" trees, the fruit of which was 

 among the earliest to reach the Cairo and Alexandria markets, and so took the locah*ty name, as "Chau- 

 tauqua grai>es" or "Riverside oranges" do in our country. Popenoe, " Date Growing in the Old and New 

 World," adopts the form "Birket el Hajji," to conformity with classic Arabic pronunciation, though 

 *• Birket el Hagg" is the correct transliteration of the name of the pool and village accepted by all Egyp- 

 tians and is on most of their maps. 



