THE DATE. 105 



his divine benevolence even for the stomachs of the faith- 

 ful, he recommended every Arab to eat seven of these 

 most wholesome and digestible fruits each morning be- 

 fore his breakfast. Yet superior are the Jebeli, which 

 are real magnum bonums, full 3 in. long, and of very fine 

 flavour. These dainties, packed in boxes holding about 

 100, form a specialite of the Holy City, and a customary 

 present from returning pilgrims to their friends at home. 

 The monks of Sinai, too, send backsJieesJi yearly to Con- 

 stantinople, in the shape of large boxes of dates, after 

 having first, with a gustative cunning worthy of monk- 

 hood, extracted the inedible stone, and substituted in its 

 place a toothsome almond. 



Except during the season for the fecundating process, 

 date-trees need little attention beyond occasionally lop- 

 ping off the old leaves as they wither, only a fragment of 

 their stalks being usually left projecting from the trunk, 

 to assist the ascent of the climbing fruit-gatherer. A 

 little watering, too, is sometimes required. Instead of 

 being formed, like exogenous timber, of regularly disposed 

 bundles of woody fibres, radiating from the centre through 

 a cellular tissue of medullary matter, the substance of 

 the palm-trunk, composed of longitudinal woody fibres 

 scattered irregularly through a mass of pith, is hardly to 

 be called timber. The ends of "the fibres are too hard, 

 and the medullary matter too soft, to admit of its being 

 held together by means of giue, and the same causes pre- 

 vent the surface from taking polish, so that the only way 

 to preserve it is by the use of varnish. The trunk, how- 

 ever, makes very good posts and beams for building pur- 

 poses, and is also employed for fuel. The leaves are 

 made into baskets and brushes ; their mid-ribs are used 

 to form garden fences, cages, &c., as a substitute for 

 wicker ; while the flower spathe and inner barklike fibres 

 are converted into strong cordage, ropes, and matting. 

 Unlike the generality of the palm tribe which rejoice 

 in the most fervent tropical heat, and scarcely spread be- 

 yond where this is felt the date delights in a milder 

 climate, and may be considered an intermediate between 

 the fruits of the torrid and of the temperate zones ; by a 



