147 



the others from producing dates, and causes 

 famine* The number of female trees cul- 

 tivated in Asia, is much greater than that 

 of the males, the former being more profit- 

 able. 



The sexual organs of the date-tree grow 

 upon different stalks; and when they are in 

 flower, the Arabs cut the male branches to 

 impregnate the female blossoms : for this 

 purpose, they make incisions in the trunk of 

 each branch which they wish to produce 

 fruit, and place in it a stalk of male flowers: 

 without this precaution, the date-tree would 

 produce only abortive fruit. In some parts 

 the male branches are only shaken over the 

 female blossoms. This practice was known 

 to the ancients, and is accurately described 

 by Pliny, who says, " if the male tree be cut 

 down, his wives will afterwards become bar- 

 ren, and bear no more dates, as if they 

 were widows. So evident is the copulation 

 of the sexes in the date-trees/' says he, "that 

 men have devised to make the females 

 fruitful, by casting upon them the blooms 

 and down that the male tree bears, and 

 sometimes by strewing the powder which he 

 yields upon them/' 



Linnaeus, in his Dissertation on the Sexes 

 of Plants, speaking of the date-tree, says, 



L 2' 



