FRUITS 71 



solidifies into a sweet pulp. The flowers have developed 

 meanwhile into minute seeds, which are the real fruits of 

 the tree. 



What are called green figs are merely these fresh ripe figs ; 

 dried figs, such as we buy in boxes, are the ripe figs dried in the 

 sun or in ovens. No sugar is necessary to preserve them as 

 they themselves contain from 60 to 70 per cent, of grape sugar. 



Smyrna, in Asia Minor, exports most dried figs, but the 

 tree thrives in nearly all warm and temperate climates, though 

 for its fruits to ripen it must have a hot dry season. On the 

 western downs of Queensland fig-trees grow well, and also in 

 the south-west of Western Australia and in the Cape Province 

 and Natal. 



DATES, the fruit of the date palm, Phoenix dactylifera. The 

 date palm grows to about a hundred or a hundred and fifty 

 feet high, and like other palms has no branches, but consists 

 of a long straight trunk, bearing at its summit an enormous 

 nlass of large feathery leaves. 



In the midst of these great leaves there shoot forth spikes 

 of flowers, each spike being enclosed in a sheath. The number 

 of these spikes varies ; sometimes there are as many as twelve, 

 but from two to six is the more usual number, and each spike 

 bears between one and two hundred dates. A bunch or spike 

 of dates weighs about twenty-five pounds, and its heavy 

 weight causes it to bend over and hang down. 



There are many different kinds of date palms, and the fruit 

 varies in shape and colour. Some of the best kinds are yellow 

 when ripe and about two inches in length, others are red. 

 They consist of a sweet pulp and inside is a hard stone. They 

 are eaten either fresh or dried. 



On the walls of ancient Thebes there are paintings dating 

 from 1600 B.C., and in these are to be seen date palms in fruit 

 showing that more than three thousand years ago these trees 

 flourished in the Valley of the Nile as they do now. At present 

 there are millions of date palms in Egypt and the Sudan, but 

 the bulk of the fruit is eaten by the inhabitants of the country 



