288 REVIEW. 



THE BIBLE GARDEN,— containing a brie f description of 

 all the Trees and Plants mentioned in the Holy Scriptures ; 

 by Joseph Taylor. The Illustrations selected and etched 

 on Steel by W. H. Brooke, F. S. A.— London: Dean & 

 Munday, 1836. 



PALM TREE 



Phacnix dactylifera. 



" And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water and three score 

 and ten palm-trtes: and they encamped there by the waters." — Exodus, xv. 27. 



"The Palm-tree is found in a variety of the warm countries in the south of 

 Asia, and the north of Africa ; they were numerous on the banks of Jordan, 

 but the best were those around Jericho and Engiridi, which latter place is 

 for that reason called Hazazon-tamor, the cutting of the Palm-trees. This 

 tree grows very tall and upright, and its leaves retain their greenness 

 through the whole year ; the more it is exposed to the sun the better is its 

 growth. 



Palm-trees produce but little fruit, till about thirty years old, after which 

 "while their juice continues, the older they become the more fruitful they are, 

 and will bear three or four hundred pounds of dates every year. The date is 

 a most sweet, lucious kind of fruit, on which most of the inhabitants of Persia, 

 Arabia, and Egypt, entirely subsist. 



A species of rich honey or syrup, and a spirituous fermented liquor called 

 Ardky, are obtained from it ; there is also extracted from the palm-tree a 

 kind of wine, which is perhaps what the Scripture calls ihichar, or strong 

 drink. 



As the sap is chiefly in the top of the tree, when they intend to extract 

 a liquor from it, they cut off the top, where there is always a tuft of spring 

 leaves about four feet long, and scoop the trunk into the shape of a bason : 

 here the sap ascending lodges itself at the rate of three or four English pints 

 a day ; for the first week or fortnight, after which it gradually decreases, 

 and in six weeks or two months the whole juice will be extracted. 



As palm-trees were accounted symbols of victory, branches of palm were 

 carried before conquerors in their triumphs; and in allusion hereto, the saints 

 are said to have palms in their hands, to denote the victory over sin, Satan, the 

 world, the persecutions of Antichrist, &c. Rev. vii. 9. 



A remarkable experiment to prove the fructification of this tree, occurs 

 in the 47th volume of the Philosophical Transactions. There was a great 

 palm-tree in the garden of the Royal Academy at Berlin, which flowered 

 and bore, fruit for thirty years, but the fruit never ripened, and when planted 

 tdid not vegetate ; this tree Linn ws discovered to be a female plant, and as 

 there was no male palm in its vicinity, the flowers never came to maturity. 



At Leipsic, twenty German miles from Berlin, was a male plant of this 

 kind, from which, in April 1740, a branch of flowers was procured, and 

 shaken, so that the dust, or farina, fell upon the flowers of the unfruitful tree. 

 This experiment was so successful, that the palm-tree produced more than a 

 hundred perfectly ripe fruit, from which they had eleven young palms ; on 

 repeating the experiment next year, the palm-tree produced above two 

 thousand ripe fruit. This experiment fully established the fact attested 

 by the ancients concerning the Palm-tree ; which some hare regarded as 

 fabolous. 



This tree exhibits great variety in fruit, size, quality, and colour: 

 twenty different kinds have been enumerated. Perhaps no tree whatever is 

 used for so many and such valuable purposes as the Palm, or date tree ; 

 «ven the stones are given to camels and sheep as food." 



