190 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



make useful. The wood, though of a spongy 

 texture, lasts such a number of years, that they 

 say it is incorruptible ; most of their instruments 

 of husbandry are made of it; and though it 

 burns slowly, it gives out great heat. The Arabs 

 strip the bark and fibrous parts from the young 

 trees, and eat the substance in the inside of the 

 stalk. It is nourishing and sweet, and is called 

 the marrow of the date-tree. They eat also the 

 young leaves, with lemon-juice ; and the old ones 

 are dried, and used for making mats, baskets, 

 and many other articles, with which they carry 

 on a considerable trade. From the stumps of 

 the branches arise a great number of delicate 

 filaments, of which ropes, and even a coarse 

 cloth, are manufactured. 



Indeed I believe all the palms are very useful, 

 even the humble dwarf fan-palm, which we saw 

 also in this collection, and which Mr. Lumley 

 says is very plentiful in Algarve, the southern 

 province of Portugal ; it seldom grows more than 

 three or four feet high, though the stem is thick: 

 its fan-shaped leaves are used for making the 

 baskets in which the dried figs are packed ; and 

 its young shoots are eaten as vegetables. 



But I was surprised not to see in this collec- 

 tion the silk-thread palm, that celebrated tree 

 which you and I have had the pleasure of seeing 

 in its own country, with its beautiful, long, ser- 

 rated leaves, composed of innumerable fibres, 



