DATE VARIETIES 287 



fresh, it changes to an attractive golden brown when 

 it cures, and the blisters of the skin take a tan or 

 hazel color. The date is thickest just below the 

 base, tapering slightly to the bluntly pointed apex. 

 The base is flattened. Skin thin and tender, adhering 

 closely to flesh but indiscriminately wrinkled; some- 

 times raised in long folds and blisters. Flesh three- 

 sixteenths to one-fourth inch thick, firm and trans- 

 lucent. Seed one and one-fourth inch long, five- 

 sixteenths inch wide, slender, tight in cavity, golden 

 brown in color, almost uniform in width throughout 

 its length, rounded to broadly pointed at each end; 

 ventral channel broadly open, germ pore close to 

 base. Flavor particularly sweet, delicate and agree- 

 able but not cloying. 



Much interest has been created in Coachella 

 Valley by a palm belonging to Fred N. Johnson of 

 Indio, which was imported as an offshoot from Tunis 

 by the Department of Agriculture, but given to Mr. 

 Johnson without a label. My friend and colleague 

 Henry Simon, of Arabia, California, who spent the 

 winter of 1912-1913 in Algeria and Tunisia, and gave 

 particular attention to the identification of this 

 palm by comparing its fruit with those of the Sahara 

 and getting the opinions of Arab growers, came to 

 the conclusion that it was Tafazwin, but with some 

 slight differences which indicated that the California 

 palm might have been the offshoot of a particularly 

 fine seedling Tafazwin. I concur with Mr. Simon 

 in this opinion, but in order that the reader may form 

 his own judgment, I give a description of Mr. Johnson's 

 date: 



Fruit two inches long, seven-eighths inch wide, 

 usually tapering slightly from base to apex but 



