172 GARDEN PLANTS. TART II. 



ENDOGENS. 



PALMACE^E. 



Borassus flabelliformis. 



PALMYEA-TREE FAN-PALM. 



Tdl gaehh. 



This well-known Palm is about the commonest tree we have 

 in Bengal. It produces in the Cold season a crop of great round 

 black fruits, the interior of which consists of an insipid, gelatinous, 

 pellucid kind of pulp, about the size of a large Orange, eaten by 

 the natives, but not likely to be at all acceptable to Europeans ; 

 but a good preserve, it is said, may be made of it, and when of 

 about the size of a fowl's egg it is often used for pickling. 



Phoenix dactylifera. 



DATE-PALM. 



Kliajoor. 



The Date-tree abounds and is productive in the Punjab, but, 

 as Dr. Yoigt states, it " does not thrive in Lower Bengal. In 

 the Calcutta Botanical Gardens some male trees have lived to 

 flower, soon after which, however, they uniformly perished.'* 

 Mr. S. H. Robinson maintains that Phrenix sylvestris, known as 

 the Wild Date of Bengal, is identical with P. dactylifera, and of 

 this he writes, that " it flowers about April or May, and the fruit 

 ripens in July or August; the latter is, however, of a very 

 inferior description in Bengal, and is seldom gathered except 

 for its seed, from which the young trees are raised. The fruit, 

 indeed, consists more of seed than of pulp, and altogether is 

 only about one-fourth the size of the Arabian kind brought 

 annually to Calcutta for sale, and when fresh imported a rich 

 and favourite fruit there."* 



Mr. John Scott, again, of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, 

 says : " The Arabian Date Palm has been cultivated for many 

 years here, but never, as far as I can hear, produced fruit. With 

 the exception of one plant about ten feet high, which I am told 



* Prize Essay on the Cultivation of the Date-tree, ' Journal of A.-H. Society,' 

 vol. ix. 



