452 [ THE DATE PALM. 



do not attain maturity are always very ornamental. In 

 the oases of Tunis and Algeria the groves of date palms 

 are regularly watered by flooding every eight or ten 

 days. It is advisable not to cut off any foliage before 

 it shows signs of old age or decay, and in any case it is 

 very objectionable to remove young foliage, and the 

 practice of tying up the inner foliage, or heart leaves, 

 one or two Sundays before carnival in order to have a 

 good supply of perfectly white and undeveloped heart 

 leaves for Palm Sunday, is particularly reprehensible, as 

 it results in a considerable check to the growth of the 

 tree, whose stem assumes a rachitic aspect. This remo- 

 val of the heart leaves is generally done every second or 

 third year, but even with this precaution the palm tree is 

 sure to suffer. 



A liberal supply of farmyard manure every second 

 or third year, is necessary to keep up the vegetation of 

 the tree, but the soil in the immediate vicinity of the 

 stem should not be hoed too deeply, in order to avoid 

 injury to the surface roots growing out of the stem close 

 to the surface of the ground or above it. The scars or 

 heels of the old foliage and the coir which surrounds the 

 stem cannot be removed without exposing the stem to 

 injury, and therefore the practice sometimes adopted by 

 gardeners to leave a smooth cylindrical stem is a cultural 

 mistake, besides being unnatural. 



The date-palm should be pollinated artificially in 

 order to secure a more thorough fertilization and a better 

 crop. The female flower has three ovules, of which on 

 fertilization only one develops into a date containing a 

 seed or stone. Unfertilized flowers sometimes develop 

 two or three ovules which remain attached together by 

 their base, and may grow almost to the size of a date, 

 but contain no seed. Artificial pollination is carried out in 

 the following manner. A leaf or two close to the female 

 flower blade are cut off, to make room for the operator, 



