Phoenix.] LXXVII. PALMiE. 553 



back. When the seed germinates, that end of the embryo which remains 

 enclosed in the albumen enlarges at the expense of the albumen, the 

 horny substance of which is converted into sugar and other soluble sub- 

 stances, which are absorbed by the embryo furnishing the substance for 

 its early growth. The process is analogous to the conversion into sugar 

 of the starch which fills the cells of the albumen of wheat, maize, rice, 

 and bamboos, during germination, with this difference, that the starch 

 forms the contents of the cells, whereas, in the stone of the date, the walls 

 of the cells themselves furnish the food of the growing embryo. 



In India the Date Palm is cultivated and self-sown in Sindh and in the southern 

 Panjab, particularly near Multan and Muzaffargarh, also in the Sind Sagar Doab 

 and trans-Indus territory. Near Dhera Ghazi Khan, Date Palms are very numer- 

 ous on a strip 10 to 12 miles long from north to south. A few trees are found 

 planted at many places in the eastern Panjab, also at Saharanpur, and here and 

 there in the Ganges Doab and Bandelkhand. Is grown in the Dekkan and Guz- 

 erat, but does not thrive in Bengal. The tree was probably introduced into India 

 at the time of the first Mahomedan conquest of Sindh, in the commencement of 

 the eighth century. Its home is believed to be the lower part of the Euphrates 

 and Tigris Doab, Arabia, Palestine, the Oases of the great African Sahara, and the 

 eastern Canary Islands. It thrives luxuriantly in the arid rainless regions of North 

 Africa and West Asia, where it is exposed to extreme heat in the day-time, and not 

 uncommonly to frost at night, but it requires a certain amount of moisture in the 

 soil. In Europe it is cultivated in Spain, where it was introduced by the Arabs, 

 and where it produces eatable fruit ; also on the Hyeres islands, the Riviera near 

 Nice, St Kemo, and Genoa, where it attains its northernmost point at 44 30' N.L. 

 There is a wood of Date Palms at Bordighera near St Remo, said to contain over 

 4000 stems, cultivated mainly to yield Palms for Palm Sunday at Rome. In South 

 Italy, Sicily, and Greece, the tree is not uncommon, but the fruit is small and poor. 

 On the island of Delos, Date Palms, sacred to Apollo, had been planted before 

 Homer's time. In Syria and Palestine the cultivation of the Palm-tree is older 

 than the first historical records in existence. On the south shores of the Caspian 

 Sea the Date Palm was formerly cultivated to a large extent. 



The tree flowers in March and April ; male trees are generally less numerous 

 than female trees, the female flowers are fertilised artificially. In Sindh (near 

 Karachi), in Arabia, and elsewhere, this is done before the flower-sheaths open ; 

 a hole is made in the sheath of the female flower, and a few bits of the male 



ganicle are inserted (Stocks in Hooker's Journ. of Bot. vii. 551). The fruit ripens 

 ept., Oct. Branching stems are occasionally found in the Panjab ; it has been 

 supposed (Stewart, Pb. Plants, 244) that these branches are merely apparent, caused 

 by seeds germinating in the axils of the petioles ; this view, however, is im- 

 probable. Many Palms have occasionally bifurcating stems, and sometimes de- 

 velop a large number of side branches. A remarkable instance of a branched 

 Phoenix sylvestris, in the Residency garden, Indore, with a trunk 22 ft. high 

 to the first branch, and with 22 vertical closely-packed branches, is mentioned 

 in the Gardeners' Chronicle of 1874, p. 116. 



The wood of the Date Palm is lighter than that of Cocos and Borasstts. The 

 cellular tissue is soft ; the vascular bundles generally show, on a horizontal 

 section, an oval shape with two distinct large pores (vessels) at one end, the hard 

 woody portion grey ; on a vertical section, they appear as shining narrow lines. 

 The wood of male trees and of trees past bearing is used for building, water- 

 channels, bridges, and various other purposes. Of the leaves, mats and the bag- 

 like baskets universally used in the whole Mediterranean region, and in other 

 countries, are made. In the Panjab mats and fans are made of the leaves ; they 



