198 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



leaves at the top. It reaches a maximum height of about 100 

 feet. If the offshoots are allowed to grow, the palm eventually 

 becomes a large clump with a single base. 



The plant is dioecious in character, i.e., staminate and pis- 

 tillate, or male and female, flowers are produced by separate 

 individuals. The inflorescence is of the same general character 

 in both sexes, a long stout spathe which bursts and discloses 

 many thickly crowded branchlets. Upon these are the small, 

 waxy-white, pollen-bearing male flowers, or the greenish female 

 blossoms in clusters of three. After pollination, two out of each 

 three of the latter usually drop, leaving only one to proceed to 

 maturity. Chance development of a blossom that has not been 

 pollinated occasionally gives rise to unfounded rumors of the 

 discovery of seedless dates; genuine seedless varieties have, 

 however, been credibly reported. 



The fruit varies in shape from round to long and slender, 

 and in length from 1 to 3 inches. While immature it is hard 

 and green ; as it ripens it turns yellow, or, in some varieties, red. 

 The flesh of the ripe fruit is soft and sirupy in some varieties, 

 dry and hard in others. In many kinds, including most of 

 those that ripen early, the sugar-content never attains sufficient 

 concentration to prevent fermentation; the fruit of such 

 varieties must, therefore, be eaten while fresh. 



In cultivation about 90 per cent of the male palms are usually 

 destroyed, since they can bear no fruit. 



The presence of offshoots around the base is one of the simplest 

 ways to distinguish the date palm, botanically known as 

 Phoenix dactylifera, L., from the wild palm of India (Phoenix 

 syhestris, Roxb.) and the Canary Island palm (P. canariensis, 

 Hort.) ; from the latter, which is often grown in the United 

 States for ornamental purposes, it may also be distinguished 

 by its more slender trunk, and by its leaves being glaucous 

 instead of bright green. 



Phoenix dactylifera is commonly supposed, following the 



