CHAPTER I. 



and perished, the gardener attributed the mischief to 

 a snail, Bulimns decollates (Fig. 111). Tne base of the 

 stem was completely eaten away. This destructive 

 species of snail has an elongate many-whorled shell of 

 which the tip is invariably wanting. Thus the Date 

 Palm, admired by all nations for its beauty, and so 

 productive that one single tree will almost support a 

 family this tree which surpasses all others both in 

 elegance and in utility is yet most easily destroyed. 

 Like the most valuable plants, the finest and most 

 attractive human characters lack that repulsive hard- 

 ness which enables others less highly organized to 

 repel all attacks, to resist every encroachment, and to 

 turn each circumstance to their own account. 



I have seen it stated that when a Date Palm 

 reaches a certain age, the circulation of the sap 

 becomes impeded by the constriction of the hard outer 

 wood. If cracks are naturally formed in this, the tree 

 revives ; otherwise the Arabs relieve the tension by 

 making vertical clefts with a hatchet. 



Can you guess from which end a date stone 

 germinates ? It grows from neither end, but from 

 a little scar which you may notice on the back. The 

 seed-leaf of a Date Palm does not rise towards the light, 

 as do those of most other plants ; it plunges down- 

 wards, carrying with it the rootlet, and also the stem-bud ; 

 so that the young tree grows, not as an Oak does, from 

 the spot where the acorn is lying, but from far below. 

 At the same time the plantlet, though it has estab- 

 lished itself beneath the burning surface of the sand, 

 does not abandon the store of food which the parent 

 tree has provided for its sustenance, for a communica- 

 tion is kept up with the seed until the albumen is 



