10 FLORA OF THE 



the great usefulness of the date-palm must have been 

 known thousands of years before he could have seen 

 the whole plain of Babylonia planted with it, and 

 before the Babylonians could have discovered that the 

 date-palm had two sexes on separate trees. 



THE VINE {Vitis viniferd). 



This trailing plant is so frequently and unmistakably 

 represented on the Assyrian monuments that in those 

 days it must have been growing everywhere like a 

 weed. Whether the Assyrians understood the mode of 

 propagating it by cuttings is, perhaps, not ascertain- 

 able ; but ill a region where the vine was naturalized 

 everywhere its seeds would be scattered, and would 

 germinate and produce new varieties in the same way 

 as must have occurred with the date tree. 



Moreover, the slender and trailing habit of its stem 

 must have often brought it into contact with the soil, 

 and in time it would have given off roots from the 

 part touching the soil. This would have early given 

 those people a lesson in layering the vine for pur- 

 poses of propagating the same variety. 



This tree, with its slender stem, must, over and over 

 again, have been seen climbing up date trees, and 

 festooning itself among them, and thus have uncon- 

 sciously become a part of the thoughts of the people. 



