OBSERVATIONS ON THE DATE. 259 



c\'erytliiiig is spread out before us like a map. From the other 

 edge of Castle Rock we see the whole extent of Pima caiion with 

 all its side cailons, and ridge after ridge of the Santa Catalina 

 range, all but the outer and lower ones clothed Avith a dense 

 forest of bull pine and Douglas spruce. Peak after peak, crags 

 and precipices, make up a landscape of stupendous dimensions, 

 a country frightfully difhcult to negotiate, but beautiful to the 

 eye beyond description. The descent from the summit of the 

 rock, though no less interesting, is much more trying and occu- 

 pies almost as much time as the ascent, and we are glad to be 

 again in camp, tired and hungry and thirsty as we are. Many 

 more things might be said by way of details concerning this 

 bit of country and its vegetation, but these must be suppressed 

 in the interest of brevity. 



Hacienda de Cedros, Mazapil, Zac, Mexico. 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE DATE. 



By Dr. A. E. Vinson. 



For thousands of years the date has furnished great groups 

 of the human family with their principal foodstuff. It has, 

 however, seldom been made the subject of scientific study, but 

 botanists and chemists are not wholly to blame for such neglect. 

 Until recently this remarkable fruit has been accessible only in 

 the somewhat remote oases of the burning deserts of Africa and 

 Asia, or where carried by the early Spanish adventurers into 

 the semi-arid wastes of northern Mexico, Lower California and 

 the west coast of South America. 



Another drawback to our knowledge of this fruit has been 

 the inability of the same investigator to have at his disposal the 

 different varieties of dates. This circumstance once led Pro- 

 fessor Lindet, a noted French agricultural chemist, to criticise 

 a fellow worker avIio, after analyzing a number of Mesopotamian 

 dates, announced that the date contained invert sugar only. It 

 happened that Lindet had examined some !N^orth African dates 

 which contained 38% of cane sugar with only 23% of invert 



