USES OF PALMS. 549 



of wine (the Palm Wine of Africa), or to afford the material for 

 distilling spirit (the genuine Arrack of India). Many of the 

 Palms furnish a fruit, which is wholesome and palatable, as well 

 as of great value, from the large amount in which it is produced. 

 The Cocoa-nut is well known to Europeans as of this character ; 

 and when picked in its young state, it is far more eatable, than 

 when grown to the age at which it must be left, in order to bear 

 a long voyage without injury, and at which alone, therefore, it 

 is known in this country. Its oil, as formerly stated, has now 

 become an important article of commerce ; and from its shell 

 many useful utensils are manufactured, by the Indian nations 

 amongst whom it grows. The Date, however, though less known 

 in this country, is not less important to one portion of the 

 human race, than the Cocoa-nut to another. A considerable part 

 of the inhabitants of Egypt, Arabia, and Persia, subsist entirely 

 on its fruit ; upon that which does not properly ripen, and upon 

 the ground date-stones, the camels are fed. A single Date-palm 

 will bear upwards of a hundredweight of Dates in a season, and 

 sometimes more than twice that amount. They come into bear- 

 ing at from six to ten years of age ; and are fruitful for upwards 

 of two hundred years. To all the uses already enumerated, the 

 tree itself is applied, and many more might be mentioned ; for 

 so numerous are they, that, as Gibbon informs us, the native 

 writers have celebrated in prose and verse not less than 360 

 different purposes. It is very interesting to observe that, over a 

 large part of the district in which the Date-palm abounds, none 

 of the Corn-grains can be raised, in consequence of the extreme 

 dryness of the soil, and the want of moisture in the air. The 

 sea-shores, the banks of rivers, and all parts of this region, in 

 which there is humidity, are exceedingly fertile ; but along the 

 verge of the desert, and in the smaller Oases or islands, which 

 are here and there met with as spots on the vast wilderness of 

 sand, the Date-palm is the only vegetable upon which Man can 

 subsist. The more lowly vegetables are mostly of the Cactus 

 or Euphorbia tribe, whose juices are usually too acrid to allow 

 of their being used as food. About two hundred species of 

 Palms are known, of which there is not a single representative in 



