260 DATE GROWING 



The crown of foliage on a Laqu palm is rather 

 small, leaves short and rather stiff, with long and 

 rather wide leaflets. The short, densely crowded 

 fruit-clusters do not equal the leafstalks. Stalks and 

 branches of the fruit-clusters are orange colored. 



The date, as grown in California, is one and 

 three-fourths inch long, three fourths inch wide, 

 bay, chestnut or maroon in color; oblong but usually 

 slightly curved, base flattened, usually depressed, 

 apex broadly pointed. Skin fairly thick but tender, 

 shiny, ochraceous, often raised in large blisters but 

 not otherwise wrinkled or creased. Flesh one-eighth 

 inch thick, golden brown in color, rather tough. Seed 

 one and one-eighth inch long, five-sixteenths wide, 

 tapering very little from rounded base to broadly 

 pointed apex, russet color, surface roughened, ventral 

 channel open, germ pore below middle if distinguish- 

 able. Flavor sweet, heavy. 



Majhul, Medjool, Medjeheul, "Unknown,"* 

 such a strange name for a date that its authenticity 

 has been questioned; yet it seems that this is the name 

 by which it is actually known in commerce in the 

 Tafilalet region and Southern Algeria today. It is 

 worthy of note, however, that the travelers who 

 explored the Tafilalet oases in the last century do not 

 mention any date of that name among the famous 

 ones of the region, f As a result of an investigation 



*Perfect passive participle of the common verb jahal, "to be 

 ignorant." There is a date with the same name in Madina, Arabia. 



fGerhardt Rohlfs (Reise durch Marokko, Bremen, 1868) says 

 the best are Bii Zakri (which has been famous in the Sahara for 

 centuries), Bu Hafs and Faqqus. W. B. Harris (Tafilet, London, 

 1895) says the best are Bu Zakri and "Bou Kefous" by which he 

 doubtless means Faqqus. Both these varieties, or at least ones with 

 identical names, are still found in Southern Tunisia. In the time of 

 Edrisi (A. D. 1154) the best Tafilalet date was Al BirnI (Geography, 

 p. 70; tr. by Dozy and De Goeje, Leyden, 1866). 



