CHAPTER I. 



THE DATE PALM. (Phoenix dactylifera.) 



General requirements of the date palm ; a few notes on its adaptations 

 to its habitat, and the differences between the sexes. 



1. The natural home of the date palm is close to a well 

 or spring or other water-supply, in a dry 

 parched desert with scorching summer heat. 



E EE AT A . 



Page 123, fifth line from top 



For fungoid pest read fnngal pest. 



Page 124, twelfth line from bottom 



far fungoid diseases read fungal diseases. 



--tf. .Like other plants of its class, the date palm possesses 

 no large tap root, but has what is known 



The root. 



as a fibrous root-system, i.e., it has a large 

 number of secondary roots more or less equal in thickness, 

 arising in a dense cluster from the base of the stem (see 

 illustration No. 1, page XIX). In this case the secondary roots 

 are usually about J to f inch in diameter. These roots give 

 off a number of smaller lateral roots, and, after decreasing to 

 a diameter of about J inch or rather less, end abruptly. 



In transverse sections of the secondary roots (see illustration 

 No. 2, page XX) outside the relatively well-marked central 

 M, DP 1 



