DATE. 



143 



covered with a spatha which opens and withers : those of 

 the male have six short stamina, with narrow four-cornered 

 anthers filled with farina. The female flowers have no 

 stamina. 



Dates are imported into this country in a dried state, 

 similar to dried figs : when in good condition, they are 

 much esteemed and fetch a high price. At the present 

 time they are sold for five shillings the pound, although 

 inferior kinds may be bought much cheaper for medi&inal 

 purposes, for which they are principally used in England, 

 being considered hard of digestion, and often causing 

 the head-ache to those who eat them in quantities, and 

 creating scorbutic complaints as well as the loss of 

 teeth. In medicine the qualities of dates are to soften 

 the asperities of the throat, to assuage all immoderate 

 fluxes of the stomach, and to ease disorders of the reins, 

 &c. The oil and phlegm render them moistening and 

 good to assuage coughs. They stop vomitings and fluxes, 

 and are good for the piles when taken in red wine. 

 (Barham.) 



They are principally brought from Africa, Egypt, and 

 Syria, but the finest come from Tunis. 



Near Elete, in Spain, there is a wood consisting of two 

 hundred thousand palm-trees, bearing dates. These trees 

 furnish a curious traffic : the branches of them are bound 

 up in mats to bleach the leaves, which in time become 

 white ; they are then cut off, and sent in ship-loads to 

 Genoa and other parts of Italy, for the grand procession 

 of Palm Sunday. There is a great trade in them with 

 Madrid also, where every house has its blessed palm- 

 branch. The dates seldom ripen so thoroughly as to 

 keep well. 



Hughes, in his Natural History of Barbadoes, speaking 

 of the date-tree, says, " The straightest and youngest 



