THE MEDINAH DATES. 



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about the middle of May, and the gathering of it forms the 

 Arab's vintage. The people make merry the more readily 

 because their favomite fruit is liable to a variety of accidents ; 

 droughts injure the tree, locusts destroy the produce, and thus 

 the date crop, like most productions which men are imprudent 

 enough to adopt singly as the staff of life, is subject to failure. 

 Towards the equator the date-tree disappears, while the 

 Doum {Hyphcene thebccica), distinguished from most other 



I 



palms by its branching trunk, each branch being surmounted by 

 a tuft of large stiff flabelliform leaves, assumes a conspicuous 

 place in the landscape. Its fruits, which are of the size of a 

 small apple, and covered with a tough yellow lustrous rind, have 

 a sugary taste, and serve for the preparation of sherbet. The 

 old leaf-stalks with their thorns and sheathes, which remain 

 attached to the trunk, render the task of climbing it next to 

 impossible. The chief seat of this beautiful palm are the banks 



