THE DATE. 101 



the end of the dinner a born ble \v, as though fc0 announce 

 the dessert, but it was in truth a fatal signal appointed 

 by the dissembling conspirator, and the only fruits served 

 that day to his too confiding guests were a troop of armed 

 men, who rushing on the victims, suffered none to escape 

 alive. The memory of this incident is still preserved in 

 the Italian proverb, which says concerning any person 

 who has been treacherously used, that he has eaten of 

 " the fruit of Brother Alberigo ;" and Dante makes the 

 traitor use the same metaphor to describe his fitting 

 punishment in another world : 



"The friar Alberigo, answered he, 

 Am I, who from the evil garden plucked 

 Its fruitage, and am here repaid the date 

 More luscious, for my fig." 



Considering the Italian fondness for figs, these words 

 convey a compliment indeed to the date. 



When they were first introduced into England does 

 not seem to be on record, but it was probably at a very 

 early period, for they were tolerably common in Tudor 

 days. Among Strutt's collection of the bills for the 

 funeral of Sir J. Hudstone, who died in 1581, a grocer's 

 bill is included, wherein occurs the item of " six Ib. dates, 

 2s." a very moderate price for so far- travelled a luxury, 

 at a time, too, when raisins were being sold at 6d. per Ib. 

 and sugar at 2s. Gd. 



The fruit seems afterwards to have risen in price, and 

 also declined in public favour, for Phillips, writing in 1821, 

 says that at that time the best sort cost 5s. per Ib. though 

 inferior kinds could be bought cheaper ''for medicinal 

 purposes, for which they are chiefly used." 



The trunk of the Phoenix dactylifera, as the date-palm 

 is called by botanists, is a cylindrical column 50 or 60 ft. 

 high, and from 12 to 18 in. in diameter, its appearance 

 evidencing plainly its mode of growth, and showing that 

 it is made up of the remains of former foliage. The pre- 

 sent fronds which crown its summit, are from 8 to 12 ft. 

 long, shining, tapering, and of feather-like structure, each 

 being composed of a long double range of narrow leaflets, 

 growing alternately from the sides of a central stalk, and 



