88 THE PALMS OF EUROPE AKD AFRICA. 



Although it has thus vanished from some 

 districts of whicli it was formerly the prominent 

 featTire, it still crowns others with its beauty, 

 and enriches them with its produce. It grows 

 along the Euphrates to Bagdad and Bassorah, 

 and along the coasts of the Persian Gulf even 

 to India, where it is common in Gujerat, though 

 it does not ripen its fruit Avell there. Very 

 extensively is it cultivated in Arabia and the 

 gardens of Medina; and the valleys of Safra 

 and Jedeida, on the route to Mecca, are re- 

 nowned for their extensive plantations of date 

 palms, and for the excellence of tlie fruit they 

 yield. At Safra, the date plantations are four 

 miles in length. So abundant is it, and so 

 unmixed with any other tree in the country 

 between the states of Barbary and the desert, 

 that this region is designated the land of dates, 

 {BilleduJijcrid;) and upon the last plain as the 

 desert is approached, the only objects that 

 break the dull outline of the landscape are the 

 date palm and the tent of the Arab. The 

 same tree accompanies the margin of the desert 

 in all its sinuosities ; in Tripoli, in Barca, 

 along the valley of the Nile, in the north-cast 

 of Arabia, and in the south-east of Turkey. 

 On the norlhorn borders of the Great Desert, 

 too, at the foot of the Atlas mountains, the 



