8 FLORA OF THE 



In Assyrian times such a valuable tree, representing 

 the main food of the people — a tree, which now and 

 again, by being grown from seed, unaccountably pro- 

 duced ne%v and better kinds of fruit — as if it were 

 solely by God's power, and a tree so essential to the 

 existence of the people, and so much " en evidence " 

 everywhere, would, sooner or later, be symbolized by 

 religious thinkers into a sacred tree, and artists would 

 soon have made a conventional and ornamental thing 

 of it, to suit the decorations of flat surfaces on walls 

 of palaces and temples, and for the needs of em- 

 broidery, etc., such as are shown in figs. i6, 20, and 22. 



Prof Alph. De Candolle in his ' Origin of Cultivated 

 Plants,' states that " the names of the date tree bear 

 witness to its great antiquity, both in Asia and in 

 Africa, seeing they are numerous and very different. 

 The Hebrews called the date-palm tainar, and the 

 ancient Egyptians beq. The complete difference between 

 these words, both very ancient, shows that these 

 peoples found the species indigenous and perhaps al- 

 ready named in Western Asia and in Egypt. The 

 number of Persian, Arabic, and Berber names is in- 

 credible .... I think, in fine, that in times anterior 

 to the earliest Egyptian dynasties the date-palm already 

 existed, wild or sown here and there by wandering 

 tribes, in a narrow zone extending from the Euphrates 

 to the Canaries." 



