THE DATE -PALM 



D.E.P., 



vi., pt. i., 



191-4. 



Mung. 



Area. 



PHCENIX 



DACTYLIPBRA 



Edible Date 



P. radiatus, Linn., Sp. PL, 1753, 725 ; Prain, in Journ. As. Soc. 

 Beng., 1898, Ixvi., 422 ; P. Mungo, Fl Br. Ind., ii., 203 (in part) ; Duthie 

 and Fuller, I.e. 37-8, t. ix. Green Gram, mung, mag, pessara, 

 kheruya, bulat, ghora muga, chhimi, pucha-payaru, wuthulu, etc. This 

 pulse is a native of India and is met with both wild and cultivated 

 throughout the plains, ascending to 6,000 feet in the outer ranges of the , 

 North-West Himalaya. There are three varieties, characterised by having 

 green, yellow and black seeds. The confusion in nomenclature has 

 already been explained under 1*. Mungo. 



Area. Mung is cultivated all over the Peninsula, though no estimate 

 can be given of the total production. In Bombay, where it is returned 

 separately (Season and Crop Reports), it is the fifth pulse in value, 

 and occupied in 1905-6, 189,942 acres, and in Sind 32,690 acres. 

 The most important centres are Dharwar, Ahmadnagar, Khandesh 

 and Bijapur. In Berar it would appear there were in 1904-5, 29,306 

 acres under it. The method of cultivation is essentially the same as 

 for urd. Duthie and Fuller state that it is almost invariably a 

 subordinate crop in fields of millet or cotton. It is, therefore, a 

 kharif crop, sown at the commencement of the rains and reaped in 

 October. Cultivation is the same as for cotton or millet. If sown alone, 

 the seed-rate is about 12 seers to the acre. It is reaped about a fortnight 

 before the millet crop, and threshed out by bullocks in the usual way. 



Its chief cultivation is the kharif, but in Dharwar, Kolaba and 

 Kanara it is grown in the rabi season as a second crop after rice. It 

 is then sown alone, subordinate to judr and other cereals. It does 

 best on good, deep soil of fairly dense consistency, and with a well- 

 distributed rainfall of 30 to 35 inches. When grown after rice in 

 the rabi season, cultivation is the same as for vdl (Dolichos Labi a b), 

 though the seed-rate is rather less (15 to 20 Ib. per acre) and the preparatory 

 tillage more careful. In the Deccan this pulse is sometimes sown alone 

 in the kharif season as a catch crop before sugar-cane and other irrigated 

 crops, which are planted in the rabi season (Mollison). The preparations 

 made from mung are the same as those described for urd. 



[Cf. Sen, Rept. Agri. Stat. Dacca, 1889, 48 ; Basu, Agri. Lohardaga, 1890, 

 i., 68 ; Banerjei, Agri. Guttack, 1893, 79 ; Rice, Mysore Gaz., 1897, i., 121 ; 

 Dutt, Mat. Med. Hind., 1900, 149-51 ; Leather, Agri. Ledg., 1901, No. 10, 371 ; 

 1903, No. 7, 152, 155, 183 ; Basu, Cult, of Pulse Crops in Assam, Agri. Ledg., 

 1903, No. 5, 131-2.] 



Cultivation. 



Subordinate 

 Crop. 



Kharif Crop. 



Rabi Crop. 



Soils. 



Pure Crop. 



Date 

 Palms. 



D.E.P., 



vi., pt. i., 

 109-206. 

 Edible 

 Date. 



Habitat. 



. PHCENIX, Linn. ; Fl Br. Ind., vi., 424-8 ; Gamble, Man. Ind. 

 Timbs., 1902, 730-2 ; Prain, Beng. Plants, 1903, ii., 1095-6 ; Brandis, Ind. 

 Trees, 1906, 644-6 ; PALMED. A genus of palms which comprises some 

 seven or eight species, all of which yield more or less edible fruits and are 

 important from an economic point of view. 



P. daetylifera, Linn. The Edible Date ; tree = khajur, kasser, mach, 

 karmah, pind chirdi, tar, perita, swonpalwon, etc. ; fruit = khurma, chuhdra, 

 kukydn, pind, chirwi, jarikha, tamara, perich-chankay, somblon-zi, etc. ; 

 sindhi, seindi, sendri are names for this tree that denote its origin from Sind. 

 A tall tree, often 100 to 120 feet, producing, when young, offshoots or 

 " suckers " at the base of the stem. According to De Candolle, it has 

 existed from prehistoric times in the warm-dry zone which extends from 

 Senegal to the Indus basin, principally between the parallels 15 and 20. 



882 



