28 BULLETIN 223^ 17. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



The spine area is short, 15 to 30 per cent of the blade length, the 

 sparsely set spines rather short, slender, acute, passing to a few stout 

 spike pinna, 18 to 21 inches or, rarely, 25 inches long at 3 to 5 feet 

 from the base. These are followed by pinnse 18 to 23 inches long; 

 diminishing slowly toward the apex, stiU 15 to 18 inches long at 8 or 

 9 feet, and the last apical ones dropping to 12 or 13 inches. 



The pinnae blades are coarse, harsh, and acute, 1^ to 2 inches broad 

 through the greater portion of the leaf and IJ to 1^ inches at the apex. 

 They are 0.018 of an inch (0.4572 mm.) to 0,024 of an mch (0.6096 

 mm.); occasionally 0.030 of an inch (0.7620 mm.) in thickness. The 

 pulvini are heavy, often short caudate, and coalescent groups are 

 common. The average space for each pinna on the rachis is broad 

 (1.64 inches to 2.18 inches are recorded) ; the spines are close together 

 at the base, but wide apart above, while the pinnse range from 2 inches 

 apart in the middle of the blade to IJ inches, or as close as 1 inch in 

 the apical portions, but from their unusual breadth and small angles 

 of divergence they appear crowded and overlapping. 



The paired groups of pinnae are in a decided majority, the triple 

 groups average about half as many, and there are a few quadruple 

 groups. The antrorse pinn^ diverge' from the rachis by rather 

 shght angles, the basal spines 25"^ or 30^, those above but 5° to 15^, 

 the pinnee from 10^ to 12°, 15*^, or 19°, with a small number at 25° to 

 32°. They form blade-plane angles of 10° to 15° for some of the 

 spines and lower pinnse to 22°, 25°, 32°, to 39° and 40° at 6 to 9 feet, 

 with 30° to 35° near the apex. 



An examination of leaves with the stiff, acute, antrorse pinnae placed 



at these angles wiU convince one that their defensive efficiency is 

 about perfect. 



The introrse pinnse, relatively of minor importance in this variety, 

 have an axial divergence of 40° to 72°, some of them being at 

 zero with the blade plane, others diverging 10°, 20°, to 30°, or 63°. 

 The retrorse pinnae diverge from the rachis from 25° or 30° through 

 35° and 48° to a few at 55° or 67°. These angles, combined with their 

 dorsal divergence of 5° to 10° from the blade plane, give these two 

 rather ragged ranks a very effective position for defense. 



The fruit stalks are strong, 1^ to 2 inches in diameter and 2 to 4 

 feet long; the strands are coarse, 12 to 24 inches long; the color a 

 bright orange. 



The fruit of this variety, which affords one of the best examples of 

 the dry-date class, is produced in heavy crops, the few trees in bearing 

 showing a tendency to bear in alternate years. 



