THE DATE. 353 



The date-palm, though some of the family are 

 more majestic, is still a beautiful tree. The stem of 

 it shoots up, in one cylindrical column, to the height 

 of fifty or sixty feet, without branch or division, and 

 of the same thickness throughout its whole lenght. 

 When it attains this height, its diameter is from a foot 

 to eighteen inches. From the summit of this majestic 

 trunk it throws out a magnificent crown of leaves, 

 which are equally graceful in their formation and their 

 arrangement. 



" Those groups of lovely date-trees bending 



Languidly their leaf-crowned heads, 

 Like youthful maids, when sleep descending 

 Warns them to their silken beds."* 



The main stems of the leaves are from eight to 

 twelve feet long, firm, shining, and tapering ; and 

 each embraces, at its insertion, a considerable part 

 of the trunk. The trunk of the palm is, in fact, 

 made up of the remains of leaves, the ends of which 

 are prominent just under the crown, but more obli- 

 terated toward the root of the tree. The bottoms 

 of the leaves are enveloped in membranous sheaths, 

 or fringed with very tough fibrous matter. These 

 leaves are pinnated, or in the form of feathers, each 

 leaf being composed of a great number of long, 

 narrow leaflets, which are alternate, and of a bright 

 lively green. Near the base of the leaf, these leaflets 

 are often three feet long ; but even then they are not 

 one inch in breadth; neither do they open flat, but 

 remain with a ridge in the middle, something like 

 the keel of a boat. When the leaves are young they 

 are twisted together, and matted up with loose fibres, 

 which open and disperse as the leaf expands. The 

 young leaflet is also armed at the extremity with a 

 hard black spine, or thorn. They are more stiff and 

 firm than the leaves of any other tree. 



* Moore. 



