THE DATE. 103 



cient quantity to prove availing. As soon as the blos- 

 soms on a female tree have emerged from their spathe, 

 the Arab seeks another, which he knows by experience 

 to be a stameniferous one, though the distinguishing 

 flowers have not yet burst their cerement ; for then the 

 pollen would have become spilled and lost, and it is there- 

 fore a special point in cultivation to know the exact time 

 when the cluster is ripe but yet unopened. Tearing away 

 the enveloping veil, he then takes out the blossomed 

 spike, gently divides it into pieces, and lays one small 

 fragment among the little branches of the flower stalk 

 within the spathe of the pistilliferous tree, completing 

 the ceremony by carefully covering the whole with a palm- 

 leaf. The flowers on this detached spray soon shedding 

 their pollen, then wither away, and about four or five 

 months after fecundation, the fruit, a one-seeded drupe, 

 begins to swell. AVhen nearly full grown the heavy 

 clusters are tied to the base of the tree to prevent injury 

 from the wind, for the burden of a good tree amounts to 

 no less than from 15 to 20 clusters of dates, each weigh- 

 ing from 15 to 201bs., a single tree thus sometimes pro- 

 ducing a crop of above 2 cwt. of fruit in one year. By 

 June, the gathering, which occupies two months, is 

 begun : temporary huts of palm-branches are erected in 

 the valleys, and crowds of revellers pass the hours in 

 joyous conviviality, for the harvest-time of the Northern 

 nations and the vintage of the South are here combined 

 in one, and the Oriental date-gathering is therefore a fes- 

 tival indeed, an abundant crop spreading gladness over 

 the land, while a year of failure becomes truly a year of 

 gloom. 



When left to ripen fully, the fruit is most delicious ; 

 but in this case it must be eaten almost immediately, as 

 it cannot be kept long nor carried far without fermenting; 

 and therefore, when intended for preserving, the dates 

 are gathered a little before perfect ripeness, but require 

 no other preparation than merely to be laid on mats and 

 left in the sun to dry. In Egypt the branches are cut off 

 with the fruit upon them, and packed into baskets made 

 for the purpose, with an aperture only just large enough 



