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Will. Chemical Examination of the Pollen or the fecunda- 

 ting Dust of the Date Tree of Egypt — Phoenix dacty- 

 lifera. iBy A. F. Fourcroy*. 



§ I. Introduction. 



IVl. Delille, one of the learned men who accompanied 

 Bonaparte in his expedition to Fgypt, sent me a quantity of 

 pollen or the fecundating dust of the date tree {phosnix 

 dactylif era hm.). This dust escapes from the anthera;, or 

 small sacs, which contain, it so easily, and in so large a quan- 

 tity, that whenever seen at sun-rise, at a distance it resem- 

 bles a mist which surrounds the date trees. M. Delille col- 

 lected it by causing some branches of male date trees to be 

 shaken in a room hung round with napkins, to which the 

 pollen adhered. 



I ought here to mention a very remarkable fact published 

 by M. Michaux, on the subject of the fecundating principle 

 of the palm date tree. This naturalist travelled in Persia, 

 when several usurpers were in arms contending for portions 

 of that vast empire. The different parties, alternately victo- 

 rious, penetrated into the provinces ; and in order to reduce 

 the inhabitants more speedily, they burned all the male in- 

 dividuals of the date tree. The most dreadful famine would 

 have desolated these unhappy countries, if the Persians had 

 not taken the precaution to keep in reserve the pollen of the 

 antherae, and to use it for fecundating the female individuals. 

 This observation proves that the dust of the phoenix dacty- 

 lifera preserves its fecundating property for a long time. 

 It seems they kept it eighteen years without its having lost 

 this virtue. I am therefore of opinion that the pollen of the 

 date tree, brought by M. Delille, and contained in thick 

 paper parcels, has undergone no alteration. 



Upon opening the packets, I found the fecundatina; dust 

 dry, of a sulphur yellow, sufficiently compressed to have 

 been neither moistened nor healed, and well enough de- 

 fended from the external air to prevent all bad influence. 



• fTora Annaks du Miisium d'Hisloirc Na'ureUe, tome i. p. 417, 



D 2 There 



