156 
P. citrosum, Voigt ex Breiter, Hortus Breiterianus, p. 351 
(1817), in syn.—P. citriodorum, Breiter, l.c., nomen, non Mart. ; 
Schrank in Syll. Pl. Nov. Ratisb. p. 67 (1828), descr. 
It may be noted that Dietrich (l.c.) cites P. citrosum, Hort., 
as a synonym of P. citriodorum, Mart., and questions whether 
the latter is synonymous with Geranium citriodorum, Cav. This 
suggests that he may have confused the two hybrids. 
ao: 
Dates and Date Cultivation of the Irag.—The subject of Date 
Cultivation in Mesopotamia was dealt with in the Kew Bulletin 
for 1908, pp. 283-286, and a summary of known authors on the 
subject in general in the Bulletin for 1921, p. 95. The work at 
present under review was published in 1921 for the Agricultural 
Directorate of Mesopotamia by W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd., 
Cambridge. The author, V. H. W. Dowson, states that ‘ the 
most important area of date cultivation in the Iraq, and, indeed 
in the whole world is that of the Shat Al’Arab ” (opening into 
the Persian Gulf), where both banks are lined with date gardens 
_from Fao to Qarna a distance of 108 miles, covering over an 
average width of about a mile on either side of the river, it is 
estimated, an area of about 138,000 acres of date palms. Bagdad 
is the next largest centre of date cultivation in the country—it 
lies amongst 20 miles of date gardens lining both banks of the 
Tigris. Generally in the Iraq the date palm flourishes everywhere 
it is watered and attended, from Ana on the Euphrates and 
Samara on the Tigris southwards. North of these towns the 
winters are too cold—and nearly all towns in the Iraq are 
surrounded by date groves and on the Euphrates date groves 
are common even where there are no towns. Of the many 
important details that go to make up so thorough an enquiry 
into the Agricultural practice of a cultivation like the present, 
it may be sufficient to select a few details on the subjects of 
fertilization, yield and other crops to be found in the date gardens, 
as being of special interest. 
_ “ Wind pollination cannot be relied upon, and if the pollen 
from the male flowers does not reach the stigmas of the female 
flowers, the latter develop into small, stoneless fruit (A. Shish) 
of very little value. Hence, to ensure that fertilization (A. Ligah) 
takes place, the fellah in every properly cultivated garden takes 
a sprig of the ripe male inflorescence (A. T'alaa, or, more rarely, 
Goosh) and sets it firmly in the middle of that of the female. 
Both the male and female inflorescences are enclosed in woody 
spathes (A. Sharaba, pl. Sharabat) which split open before the 
flowers mature. It is the custom for the whole, unopened, male 
spathe to be cut from the palm immediately before ripening 
and the inflorescence extracted therefrom through an artificial 
incision, and left a day or two in a small basket to mature. in 
this way no pollen is wasted. If the fellah sees an unopened 
spathe among the female inflorescences he is fertilizing, he 
frequently splits it open and sticks the male sprig amongst its 
