50S 



The Jourxal of Heredity 



operation of pollinating the female 

 inflorescence by shaking over it and 

 t\'ing in it a few sprigs from the male 

 flower. 



Turning again to genetics, the out- 

 standing fact in the cultvire of the date 

 palm is the immense number of its 

 horticultural varieties, and the antiq- 

 uity of many of them. It is probably safe 

 to say that there are not less than 5000 

 named \'arietics, in the subtrojjical 

 regions of the world, and we have rec- 

 ords of a number of them in Arabic 

 literature, which prove them to be at 

 least 1300 years old. During all this 

 time they have been propagated \'ege- 

 tatively; nevertheless, Arabs declare 

 that some of them have undergone large 

 changes in the intervening centuries. 

 The evidence at hand is not sufificient to 

 constitute proof, and it may be that 

 earlier \'arieties have died out and their 

 names been assigned to other varieties 

 with different characters. Personalh', 

 however, I think we must admit the 

 possibility that some of the varieties 

 have undergone changes analogous to 

 those bud variations which have played 

 so imjiortant a part in the history of 

 the navel orange and many other fruits. 

 It is not difficult to imagine an offshoot 

 varying from its parent; when this was 

 l)lanted, if the variation was found to 

 be favorable, it would continue to be 



propagated until the new type had 

 supplanted the old one, without any 

 change of name. 



The fewest varieties (and in m}- o]jin- 

 ion the best'') are found at present in 

 the Persian gulf and Babylonia. All 

 over the world the varieties are found 

 to be quite local in distribution, but 

 when one reaches North Africa, their 

 number is greatly augmented, through 

 the multiplication of chance seedlings. 

 Darwin, to emj^hasize the way in 

 which "organic beings of all kinds, 

 when domesticated or cultivated, have 

 varied," noted that "in the deserts of 

 northern Africa the date palm has 

 yielded 38 varieties." If he had mul- 

 tiplied this number by 10, he would 

 still have been below the truth. There 

 arc probably a hundred varieties of com- 

 mercial importance there, and a host of 

 minor ones, almost every chance seedling 

 in some districts being given a varietal 

 name, if it happens to be a female. In 

 Spain, the confusion becomes so great 

 that varieties can scarcely be said to 

 exist, each palm being a variety by 

 itself. This seems always to have been 

 the case in Spain, even in the time of 

 Pliny, and may be confidently ascribed 

 to propagation by seed, without suffi- 

 cient care in selecting, rather than to 

 the climate or any other environmental 

 influence. 



" Exception should be made in favor of Deglet Nur, "The Date of the Light, " a variety which 

 originated as a chance seedling near Tuggurt in the Algerian Sahara 300 years ago and has since 

 become recognizerl throughout North Africa as the standard of excellence. In the extreme desert 

 conditions which it recjuires, it is perhaps as good as any variety in the world. Orthodox Aral^s 

 consider the dates of Medina, the prophet's home in Arabia, to be the world's finest, but until 

 they have been studied by some competent pomologist, this verdict must be ascribed largely 

 to religious enthusiasm, fostered by the legends connecting Medina dates with Muliammad. 

 See Popenoe, Paul, Date Growing in the New and Old WorUls, 1913. 



The Power of Heredity 



Wise reform will not fail to recognize the force of heredity, whether for the 

 continuance and multiplication of human ills, or for their diminution. It wnll 

 do but little good to work for individuals here and there. Such conditions must 

 be created as will redeem the himian life-stream itself. It may be that the great- 

 ness of this task will stagger the thought and shake the courage of some. It is 

 scarcely to be denied that the study of human nature as conditioned by heredity 

 and environment is depressing in its initial stages. It makes htimanity seem like 

 clay in the hands of an inexorable and remorseless jjotter; Ixit it will save an im- 

 mense waste of time, effort and means, and, by and by, the dcj)rcssion will change 

 to hoi)e. as it is seen that the same law which necessitates degeneration under 

 certain conditions, under other conditions works regeneration. — Rev. Amory H. 

 Bradford: Heredity and Christian Problems (1895). 



