302 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



From Egyptian and Assyrian remains, as well as from 

 tradition and the most ancient writings, we find that the 

 date-palm grew in abundance in the region lying between 

 the Euphrates and the Nile. Egyptian monuments con- 

 tain fruits and drawings of the tree.^ Herodotus, in a 

 more recent age (fifth century before Christ), mentions 

 the wood of the date-palms of Babylonia, and still later 

 Strabo used similar expressions about those of Arabia, 

 whence it seems that the species was commoner than it 

 is now, and more in the condition of a natural forest 

 tree. On the other hand, Carl Ritter makes the ingfenious 

 observation that the earliest Hebrew books do not speak 

 of the date-palm as producing a fruit valued as a food 

 for man. David, about one thousand years before Christ, 

 and about seven centuries aiter Moses, does not mention 

 the date palm in his list of trees to be planted in his 

 gardens. It is true that except at Jericho dates seldom 

 ripen in Palestine Later, Herodotus says of the Baby- 

 lonian date-pahns that only the greater part produced 

 good fruit which was used for food This seems to indi- 

 cate the beginning of a cultivation perfected by the 

 selection of varieties and of the transport of male flowers 

 into the middle of the branches of female trees, but it 

 perhaps signifies also that Herodotus was ignorant of the 

 existence of the male plant. 



To the west of Egypt the date-palm had probably 

 existed for centuries or for thousands of years when 

 Herodotus mentioned them. He speaks of Libya. 

 There is no historical record with respect to the oases in 

 the Sahara, but Pliny ^ mentions the date-palm in the 

 Canaries. 



The names of the species bear witness to its great 

 antiquity both in Asia and in Africa, seeing they are nume- 

 rous and very difi^erent. The Hebrews called the date- 

 palm tamar, and the ancient Egyptians beq.^ The com- 

 plete difference between these words, both very ancient, 

 shows that these peoples found the species indigenous 

 and perhaps already named in Western A.^ia and in 



* Unger, Fflanzen d. Alt. JE^jypt., p. 38. 

 2 Plinj, Hist., lib. vi. cap. 37. ' linger, xihi snpra. 



