102 OUR COlMMOlN* FKJITS. 



forming ail object noi -very obviously suggestive of mili- 

 tary tactics, yet which, according to Pliny, first gave the 

 idea of a troop of soldiers presenting face on both sides 

 at once. These leaflets, near the base end of the stalk, 

 are sometimes 3 ft. in length, yet do not exceed an inch 

 in width, and each terminates in a sharp black spine or 

 thorn. The leaves are at first enveloped in a white smooth 

 leathery kind of sheath, which decaying after they are 

 unfolded, and assuming the form of a web of brown fibres, 

 is carefully collected for the purpose of making cordage. 

 A tree raised from seed will not bear fruit before its six- 

 teenth year, but the common mode of propagation is by 

 taking shoots from the roots of full-grown trees, and in 

 this case the young plant will begin to bear in the sixth 

 or even the third year of its growth. The Phosnix is a 

 diascious tree, having what are called the female organs 

 of fructification upon one plant, and the male upon an- 

 other ; but in both cases the flowers, crowded in clusters, 

 grow in long bunches from the trunk upon a stalk between 

 the leaves, and are enwrapped in an enormous bract deve- 

 loped at their base, which is called a spathe, and which 

 opens when they have reached maturity, and then withers. 

 A single bunch of male flowers contains about 12,000 

 small colourless blossoms, supported by little bracts and 

 composed of three sepals, three petals, and six or some- 

 times only three stamens ; for trinality is an endogen 

 characteristic, and three or a multiple of three is the 

 number on which their organs of fructification are almost 

 invariably formed, as those of exogens are upon the num- 

 bers five or four. On fruit-bearing trees the flowers are 

 still smaller, and in their centre is seen the rudiments of 

 the dates, about the size of small peas, there being three 

 ovaries, of which, however, but one ripens. Nature pro- 

 vides that by some means the wild trees shall become 

 duly impregnated ; but when under cultivation, although 

 the trees are still of the same species, and the two kinds 

 are always planted together, fructification cannot be en- 

 sured unless the pollen be collected from the one and 

 deposited on the other, for otherwise, dispersed by the 

 wind, it does not reach the pistilliferous flowers in suifi- 



