356 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



is said that the pollen had thus preserved its powers 

 during nineteen years.* 



Pontanus, an Italian poet of the fifteenth century, 

 gives a glowing description of a female date-tree, 

 which had stood lonely and ban-en, near Otranto, in 

 Italy, until a favouring wind wafted toward it the 

 pollen of a male that grew at a distance of fifteen 

 leagues. Father Lahat, in his account of America, 

 relates a story of a date-tree in the island of JVIarti- 

 nico. There were palm-trees of various other kinds 

 in the island, but there was only one date-tree, which 

 grew near a convent. That tree produced fruit which 

 was grateful enough to the taste ; but when an in- 

 crease of the number of the date-trees was wanted, 

 not a single one would grow from the seed; and 

 thus, after a number of unsuccessful trials, they were 

 obliged to send to Africa for dates, the stones of which 

 grew readily, and produced abundantly. 



Four or five months after the operation of fecun- 

 dation has been performed, the dates begin to swell; 

 and when they have attained nearly their full size, 

 they are carefully tied to the base of the leaves, to 

 prevent them from being beaten and bruised by the 

 wind. If meant to be preserved, they are gathered 

 a little before they are ripe; but when they are in- 

 tended to be eaten fresh, they are allowed to ripen 

 perfectly, in which state they are a very refreshing 

 and agreeable fruit. Ripe dates cannot, however, be 

 kept any length of time, or conveyed to any very 

 great distance, without fermenting and becoming 

 acid ; and therefore those which are intended for 

 storing up, or for being carried to a distant market, 

 are dried in the sun upon mats. The dates which 

 come to the European market from the Levant and 

 Jjarbary are in this state ; and the travellers in the de- 



* Annales du Museum, 



