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bought much cheaper for medicinal purposes, 

 for which they are principally used in 

 England, being considered hard of diges- 

 tion, and often causing the head-ache to those 

 who eat them in quantities, and they create 

 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 it's blessed palm-branch. The 



