16 THE DATE PALM. 



experienced people, and as the trees will only be distinguished 

 with certainty when they begin to bear flowers and fruits five 

 to ten years afterwards, I strongly advise that where possible the 

 parent trees should be marked when in fruit (see para. 31, page 68) 3 

 and that the suckers should be detached from their parents at 

 the planting season under personal or reliable supervision. 



12. Adult male trees in addition to having more spiny leaves 

 and stiffen leaflets are said to have thicker stems 

 male and more leaves on their tops as a rule. As 

 t thickness of stem depends on the number and 

 degree of development of the functional leaves 

 which a tree bears, the stem, when grown on poor soil with scanty 

 water-supply or under other unfavourable conditions, may not 

 reach the same thickness as it does when conditions are more 

 favourable. A group of trees growing from the same thadda 

 (stool) and which had apparently originated as off-shoots from 

 the taller central one gave the following measurements : 

 Stem (a) 2 feet and 5 inches in circumference. 

 (b) 4 feet and 10 inches in circumference. 

 ,, (c) 3 feet and 6 inches in circumference. 



The plantation was a rather dense one near that point. 



The thickness of an individual stem may even differ 

 considerably at different heights if the conditions of growth at 

 different periods in the life of the tree have been markedly 

 unequal. The circumference of such a tree was less than 2 feet at 

 one height while it was 3 feet at another. (See also illustrations 

 Nos. 20 and 21, pages IQa & 166.) Minor differences in thickness 

 of a stem at different heights can frequently be seen in trees 

 growing where conditions of growth are not very constant. In fair 

 circumstances, however, the stem of a date tree is approximately 

 equal in thickness along its whole length, and different varieties 

 of dates have a tendency to produce a stem of a certain thickness 

 but the tendency to form thick stems is not confined to males. 

 Numbers of male trees have been seen with quite thin stems ; 

 others with very thick stems ; while both thick stemmed and 



