PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 5 



came to be recognized, from very early times, that the date trees 

 were of two kinds, sterile and fruit-bearing, in other words, 

 "male" and "female," and that the product of a sterile "male" 



Plate V. Fruiting branch of the date ; Deglet Nur variety, showing the fruiting stalk 

 or peduncle (Arabic "Sobata'^), and the individual bearing-strands or pedicels, known 

 collectively (Arabic) as the "Shamrokh." U.S. Depanmtnt of AgricuLure, Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, Bull. 223, Fig. 12. 



tree was needed in order to ensure the bearing of fruit by a fertile 

 "female" tree. 



Kazwini (6), an Arabic writer on natural history, says of the 

 date : "It is created out of the same substance as Adam, and is 

 the only tree that is artificially fertilized." 



The seeds of the date palm produce in about equal numbers 

 male and female trees. The female trees are wind-pollinated, and 

 therefore under natural wild conditions there would easily be 

 enough male trees to fertilize them. Under cultivation, however, 

 the growing of such a large proportion of non-fruiting or sterile 

 trees would be a very wasteful use of the land, and we find that 

 quite early (probably as early as Babylonian and Assyrian times) 



