966 



DASYLIRION 



DATE 



in hardiness, showiness and regularity of flowering, but 

 they have an individuality of their own. They are 

 especially esteemed in California, where the great 

 flower-stalks, 8 to 10 feet high, give a strong impres- 

 sion of the desert. The individual flowers are not 

 highly colored, but the spikes are several feet long. 

 These and related plants have been the subject of 

 recent revision. Beaucarnea is now considered to be 

 distinct, and a new genus, Calibanus, is erected by 

 Rose on D. casspitosum. These new treatments are 

 explained under Nolina. 



A. Lvs. flat, prickly-margined. 

 B. Lvs. usually green, splitting into fibers at tip, narrow. 



texanum, Scheele. Lvs. 3/in. x 2-3 ft., glossy green: 

 prickles yellow, turning brown: infl. 9-15 ft. high: 

 ir. elliptical, A x A m -> shallow-notched. S. Cent. 

 Texas. 



acrotriche, Zucc. (D. acrotrichum, Baker. D. 

 grdcile, Planch. Bonapdrtea grdcilis, Otto. Roulinia 

 grdcilis, Brongn. Yucca grddlis, Otto. Y. acrdtricha, 

 Schiede. Barbacenia grdcilis, Brongn. Littaea grdcilis, 

 Hort.). Lvs. very narrow, j^jin. x 2-3 ft., sometimes 

 dull or pale: prickles pale yellow, brown at tip: infl. 

 9-15 ft. high: fr. round-cordate, YS x J4 m -> shallow- 

 notched. E. Cent. Mex. Abhandl. Akad. Muench. 

 Cl. 2, 3:1. B.M. 5030. F.S. 1448; 7, p. 10. G.C. III. 

 19, p. 204. 



graminifdlium, Zucc. (Yucca graminifdlia, Zucc.). 

 Lvs. ^in. x 3 ft., glossy green: prickles very short, 

 yellowish white: fr. elliptical, y x ^in. E. Cent. Mex. 

 Abhandl. Akad. Muench., Cl. 2, 3:1. Allgem. Gartenz. 

 9:1. 



BB. Lvs. glaucous and dull. 

 c. The Ivs. not shredded at tip, narrow. 



glaucophyllum, Hook. (D. glaucum, Carr. Bona- 

 pdrtea glauca, Hort.). Lvs. J-^in. x 3-4 ft: prickles 

 yellowish white: infl. 12-18 ft. high: fr. elliptical, 

 Mx^in. E. Cent. Mex. B.M. 5041. G.C. II. 13, 

 p. 205; III. 40, p. 247. Rep. Mo. Bot. Card. 14, p. 12. 



cc. The Ivs. splitting into fibers at tip, wider. 



serratifdlium, Zucc. (D. laxifldrum, Baker. Yucca 

 serratifblia, Schultes. Roulinia serratifolia, Brongn.). 

 Lvs. 1-1 Yi in. x 2-3 ft., rough: prickles rather long, 

 sometimes %in. apart. S. E. Mex. Abhandl. Akad. 

 Muench., Cl. 2, 3:1. 



Wheeled, Wats. With distinct short trunk: Ivs. 

 nearly 1 in. x 2-3 ft., nearly smooth: prickles yellow, 

 browning at tip: infl. 9-15 ft. high: fr. round obovate, 

 }4 x Ain., openly notched. S. E. Ariz, and adjacent 

 region. PI. World, 10, p. 254. Publ. Carnegie Inst. 

 99:58. Icones Sel. Hort. Thenensis, 225. 



AA. Lvs. 4-sided, neither prickly nor usually brush-tipped. 



longissimum, Lem. (D. quadrangulatum, Wats. 

 D. juncifolium, Rehnelt). Trunk 3-6 ft. high: Ivs. 

 very numerous, J^in. x 4-6 ft., dull green: infl. 6-18 ft. 

 high: fr. ^ x /^in-, scarcely notched. E. Mex. B.M. 

 7749. G.F. 36, p. 280. Bull. Soc. Tosc. Ort. 9, p. 236; 

 35:6. Die Natur, 34, p. 340. R.H. 86, p. 66. 



D. Hodkeri, Lem. =Calibanus Hookeri, Trel. Csee Nolina). 

 D. junceum, Zucc. =Nolina Hartwegiana. D. longifdlium, 

 Zucc.=Nolinalongifolia. WlLLIAM TRELEASE.f 



DATE. A palm, Phoenix dactylifera, Linn., native 

 to North Africa or Arabia and extensively planted in 

 countries inhabited by Arabs, and having arid or 

 desert conditions. Figs. 1223-1226. It is also grown to 

 some extent in southern Asia and southern Europe and 

 in other tropical and subtropical countries. It is of 

 very ancient cultivation, having been grown along the 

 Tigris and Euphrates Rivers for four thousand years 

 or more. It has long been planted casually in parts 

 of Mexico and the southwestern parts of the United 



States, and is now becoming a fruit of commercial 

 promise in some of these regions. 



The date palm reaches a height of 100 feet, making 

 a nearly straight, shaggy trunk, and it continues to 

 bear for one or two centuries. It is dkecious, the males 

 usually equaling the females in a batch of seedlings, 

 this constituting one of the great disadvantages of rais- 

 ing seedling dates. The Arabs practise artificial pollina- 

 tion by tying male flowers on the pistillate clusters. 

 The flowers are produced early in the spring, from six 

 to twenty clusters appearing on a mature tree. The 

 female or fertile clusters of good size will produce as 

 much as twenty to forty pounds of dates. As with 

 apples and other fruits, there are many varieties differ- 

 ing in quality; seedlings do not reproduce the variety, 

 so that propagation of named varieties must be accom- 

 plished by other means. 



The date is the fruit, being essentially a drupe, 

 measuring 1 to 3 inches long. The date of commerce 

 is the cured and dried natural fruit. The sweet nutri- 

 tious pulp of the fruit constitutes one of the most 

 important foods of the Arabs. The leaves and other 

 parts of the plant afford materials for dwellings and 

 many domestic uses. The wood or trunk is used for 

 timber. The importation of dates into the United 

 States amounts to about $500,000 worth annually. No 

 doubt the consumption will be greatly increased when 

 a home-grown and clean-packed product is obtainable. 



Aside from the direct uses of the plants and the 

 fruits, the date palm is valuable as a cover for other 

 crops in the hot and dry regions. Beneath the palms, 

 other fruits, vegetables and many crops may be grown 

 with more safety than in the open blazing sun. It 

 is probable, therefore, that the date palm will become 

 a feature of the farming in all the regions of the South- 

 west in which it thrives. 



The general situation. 



In Florida, California, and restricted areas of a few 

 other states, the date has been grown for decorative 

 purposes for more than a century. At the missions 

 founded by the Spaniards at St. Augustine, and other 

 places in Florida, and that long line of missions extend- 

 ing from far into Mexico northward and westward 

 through southern New Mexico, Arizona and California, 

 it is likely the date was planted wherever the climatic 

 conditions were favorable to its growth. Within the 

 borders of the United States the greater number of 

 these early plantings were in Florida or along the coast 

 of southern California, regions where the sum total 

 of summer heat is not sufficient to develop the date 

 fruit perfectly. The date, as a fruit-producer, being 

 indigenous to a desert environment, does not take 

 kindly to humid regions, even where it is not sufficiently 

 cold to prohibit the growth of the tree. It is not only 

 a question of maturing the tree or even of producing 

 the fruit but also of bringing the fruit to perfect ripe- 

 ness. For this reason the greater number of the early 

 plantings in this country matured little fruit, while 

 that produced was of poor quality, although in many 

 instances the trees grew luxuriantly and to large size. 

 In the more arid parts of Lower California and Sonora, 

 where there is sufficient water for irrigation, the early 

 plantings have been continued down to the present 

 time, and dates of fair quality have been grown for 

 many years. Moreover, each year the area devoted 

 to dates is increasing, and with the recent studies of 

 the life-history of the plant by Swingle and others the 

 adaptation of regions is now better understood and 

 undoubtedly the future plantings will be made with 

 much better assurance of success. Modern date cul- 

 ture in this country may be said to have begun with 

 the planting of imported Egyptian and Algerian palms 

 and seedlings principally in Salt River Valley, Arizona, 

 in the years 1890-1900. Tourney's studies of these 

 early plantings resulted in Bulletin No. 29 of the 



