BATE-PALM, OR DATE-TREE, 63 



SECTION X. 



Date-palm, or Date-tree *. 

 Phoenix. Li\N. 



This genus affords us two known species: Ph. farinifera, an In- 

 dian tree, with pinnate fronds longer than the trunk; and Ph. dac- 

 tylifera, with piunate fronds shorter than the trunk, a native of 

 Arabia and Persia. It is the last to which we are to confine our 

 attention in the present place. Its trunk rises to fifty, sixty, and a 

 hundred feet high ; is round, upright and studded with protuber- 

 ances, which are the vestiges of the decayed leaves. From the top 

 issues forth a cluster of leaves or branches eight or nine feet long, 

 extending all round like an uml>rella,and bending a little towards the 

 earth. The bottom part produces a number of stalks like those of 

 the middle, but seldom shooting so high as four or five feet. These 

 stalks, says Adanson, diffuse the tree very considerably ; so that 

 wherever it naturally grows in forests,it is extremely difficult to open 

 a passage through its prickly leaves. The date-tree was introduced 

 into Jamaica soon after the conquest of the island by the Spaniards. 

 There are, however, but few of them in Jamaica at this time. 

 The fruit is somewhat in the shape of an acorn. It is composed of 

 a thin, light, and glossy membrane, somewhat pellucid and yel- 

 lowish, which contain a fine, soft, and pulpy fruit, which is firm, 

 sweety and somewhat vinous to the taste, esculent, and wholesome ; 

 and within this is enclosed a solid, tough, and hard kernel, of a 

 pale grey colour on the outside, and finely marbled within like the 

 nutmeg. The best are brought from Tunis : they are also very 

 fine and good in Egypt, and in many parts of the East. Those of 

 Spain and France look well ; but are never perfectly ripe, and very- 

 subject to decay. Dates have always been esteemed moderately 

 strengthening and astringent. 



* The Indian Date-plum is a plant of a different kind, and is the diospyroH 

 of Linnaeus. It has nine or ten species, of which the (wo chief are, first, the 

 lotus, a native of Africa, much cultivated in Italy and the South of France, 

 and supposed to be the fruit by which Ulysses and his companions were en- 

 chanted and forgot their native country. 2d, The persimon or pitchumon- 

 plum, a native of America, cultivated in the nurseries of our own gardens, 

 though rarely so as to bring its fruit to perfection. Editor. 



