DASHKOFF 



DATE PALM 



Leu Amours dt. Btissy-Rubutin (1850), La 

 </'w(l8f>;j), UGaUMtoriei (tola Cow deLoui* .VI 



(istil), Cuininnit 'imnhfut lett Feinmes (1867), and 

 Lcs Aft-ntni-i's i/' mi' ,/eune Marite ( 1870). 



Daslikofl, Pi.-iN' i ^ KK \n \-.\\.\ KO.MANOVNA, 

 daughter of Count VoronzoM', wan born 28tli March 

 174.S, at Si IViersliiirg, ami from her earliest youth 

 received a careful training. She married Prince 

 DiMhkoffwhen only fifteen years old, but wan left 

 a widow three years after. She was an intimate 

 nil-mi f tin- Knipress Catharine II., and one of the 

 heads of the conspiracy formed against Peter III., 

 the success of which si-cured the throne to Cath- 

 arine. Soon afterwards quarrelling with Catharine, 

 she obtained permission to travel, and visited 

 < icriii.uiv . England, France, and Italy, making 

 tlie acquaintance of many eminent men (among 

 others, (Jarrick, Dr Blair, and Dr Robertson). The 

 empress ami slie were reconciled to each other, 

 and the princess was appointed Director of the 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences ; and in 1783, Presi- 

 dent of the Russian Academy, established at her 

 own suggestion in imitation of the French Academic. 

 On the death of Catharine in 1796, she was deprived 

 of her otlices, and ordered liy Paul III. to retire to 

 her estates at Novgorod. Slie died 16th January 

 1.810. Besides writing several comedies and occa- 

 sional papers, the Princess Dashkoff was mainly 

 instrumental in inducing the Russian Academy to 

 draw up a dictionary of the Russian language, and 

 herself executed part of the work. See her veiy 

 interesting autobiography (trans. 1840). 



Dasyprocta. See AGOUTI. 



Dasyiire (Dasyurus), a genus of carnivorous 

 marsupials, including forms which in the Australian 

 and Tosnianian fauna take the place filled in other 

 regions by carnivores. The large sharp canines, 

 the sharp-pointed cusps on the back teeth, and the 

 clawed toes are among the adaptive carnivorous 

 features, and there are others of a more technical 

 nature. The dasyures are nocturnal and savage 

 animals, and as one would expect, peculiarly un- 

 tamable. One of the most pronounced is the 

 Tasmanian Devil (D. ursinus), a savage animal, 

 about the size of a badger, with a disproportion- 

 ately large and broad head, and massive crowded 

 teeth. The body is plump ; the fur is coarse and 

 brownish-black, with a white band on the chest, 

 and another at the end of the back ; the tail is 



Tasmanian Devil (Dayuru uronut). 



thick, and about half as long as the l>ody. In 

 Tasmania these 'devils' used to commit "great 



havoc among poultry and even sheep, but are 

 driven into more and more remote haunts. The 

 Spotted Dasyure ( D. maculatus ), also Tasmanian, 

 is a much smaller animal, about the size of a cat. 

 Another ' wild cat ' of the same country and Vic- 

 toria is Mange's Dasyure (D. niangei or viverrimis). 

 Other species occur in Australia and New Guinea. 

 Nearly allied to the dasyures are two genera, 



Thylacinua and PluiMcogaje. The former, the 

 Thylacino (q.v. ) or Taxmanian wolf, in the largest 

 carnivorous marsupial ; the latter in insectivorous. 

 See MARSUPIALS. 



Date. Bee CHRONOLOGY. 



Date Palm (I'luniix), a genus of palms, the 

 moat important species of which i- the Common Date 

 Palm, the Palm Tree of Scripture (P. dacty It/era), 

 a native of the northern half of Africa, the south- 

 west of Asia, and some parts of India, and of which 

 the cultivation is no less wide, and still extending. 



Date Palm : 

 a, bunch of dates dependent from their spathe ; b, portion of leaf. 



Some parts of China produce large crops. The stem, 

 which is straight and simple, reaches a height of 30 

 to 60 feet, and bears a head of 40 to 80 glaucous 

 pinnated leaves, of 8 to 10 feet long, and a number of 

 branching spadices, each of which on the female tree 

 bears 180 to 200 fruits (dates, dactyli). A bunch of 

 dates weighs 20 or 25 lb., so that an average year's 

 crop may be reckoned at 300 to 600 lb. per tree, 

 and the yield per acre at alout twelve times that 

 of corn. From the earliest times fertilisation has 

 been artificially aided by cutting off the male 

 inflorescences just l>efore the stamens ripen, and 

 suspending them among those of the female tree ; 

 so avoiding the risks and losses of ordinary wind- 

 fertilisation. In a palm grove there may be but 

 one male stem to forty or fifty fruit-tearing ones. 

 The Arabs seldom raise palms from seed ; to make 

 sure of the sex they take suckers from female trees 

 known to bear good trait The tree begins to bear 

 a!ont the eighth year, reaches maturity at about 

 thirty years, and does not decline until about the 

 age of one hundred. This is one of the most im- 

 portant and useful of all the palms. In Egypt, 

 and generally in North Africa, Persia, and 

 Arabia, dates* form the principal food, and date 

 palms the principal wealth of the people. The 

 lleshy part of the fruit contains 58 per cent, 

 of sugar, accompanied by pectin, gum, &o. The 

 fruit is eaten either fresh or dried, and in the 

 latter state becomes an article of commerce. Cakes 

 of dates pounded and kneaded together, and so 

 solid as to le cut with a hatchet, are the store of 

 food provided for African caravans on their journey 

 through the Sahara. A sweet juice (date-honey t 

 can be expressed from the fruits, from which a kind 

 of wine is obtained by fermentation ; also a sort of 

 vinegar ; an ardent spirit is of course also distilled 

 from the fermented juice. Palm- wine is also made 

 from the sap after the terminal bud is removed. 

 The bud is eaten as palm-cabbage, similarly also 

 the undeveloped panicles of flowers. The date 



