BOOK XIII. VI. 26-vii. 29 



barren. In the coastal regions of Spain they do bear 

 fruit, but it does not ripen, and in Africa the fruit is 

 sweet but will not keep for any time. On the other 

 hand in the east the palm supphes the native races 

 with wine, and some of them with bread, while a very 

 large number rely on it also for cattle fodder. For 

 this reason, therefore, we shall be justified in describ- 

 ing the palms of foreign countries ; there are none 

 in Italy not grown under cultivation, nor are there in 

 any other part of the earth except where there is a 

 warm climate, while only in really hot countries does 

 the palm bear fruit. VII. It grows in a hght sandy 

 soil and for the most part in one containing nitrates. 

 It Ukes running water, and to drink all the year 

 round, though it loves dry places. Some people 

 think that dung actually does it harm, while a 

 section of the Assyrians think that this happens if 

 they do not mix the dung with water from a 

 stream. There are several kinds of pahn, beginning vanetiesnf 

 with kinds not larger than a shrub — a shrub that ^^"^- 

 in some cases is barren, though in other districts 

 it too bears fruit — and having a short branch. In 

 a number of places this shrub-palm with its dome 

 of leaves serves instead of plaster for the walls of 

 a house, to prevent their sweating. Also the taller 

 palms make a regular forest, their pointed foUage 

 shooting out from the actual tree aU round them 

 Uke a comb — these it mastbe understood are wild 

 palms, though they also have a wayward fancy for 

 mingUng among the cultivated varieties. The other 

 kinds are rounded and taU, and have compact rows of 

 knobs or circles in their bark which render them easy 

 for the eastern races to cUmb; they put a plaited 

 noose round themselves and round the tree, and the 



115 



