SEEDLING PALMS. 19 



had been planted at the Cooperative Date Garden at Tempe, Ariz. , were 

 killed by alkali shortly after they appeared, while the offshoots grow- 

 ing near by were unharmed. In case alkaline areas are to be planted 

 it would be best to establish a nursery on alkali-free land and trans- 

 plant the seedlings when the}^ are 1 or 2 years old, or, if the soil is very 

 alkaline, when 3 or 4 years old, to the positions they are to occupy 

 permanently. Where the palms are to be planted on the very worst 

 alkaline lands it would be well to allow the young date palms to flower 

 in the nursery rows, so that the males could be discarded and only 

 females set out, with the precautions for washing out the alkali men- 

 tioned below, thus avoiding the expense and trouble of caring for the 

 worthless male plants. It is easy to distinguish the male from the 

 female plants by an inspection of the flowers, which, as is shown in 

 Plate VII, figure 3, are very different in the two sexes. In transplant- 

 ing young seedlings the leaves should be cut back severely to corre- 

 spond with the cutting back suffered by the root system. 



It is interesting to note in this connection that the date palm requires 

 for its germination not 'only fresh water, free from any considerable 

 amount of dissolved alkali, but also a large and continuous supply of 

 such water. The young seedling shows curiously enough a whole set 

 of peculiarities of structure which enable it to throw off an excess of 

 moisture. Fritsch, an Austrian botanist, concluded that the seed was 

 adapted for germination during the rainy season, and that it was 

 meant to grow in earth thoroughly saturated with water." Not only 

 are the roots devoid of hairs, resembling in this peculiarity those of 

 plants which grow in swamps and in water, but they have numerous 

 aerating canals, and in other wa} 7 s show adaptation for growth in very 

 moist situations. There are even pores at the tops of the leaves by 

 which the little seedlings can get rid of superfluous moisture which 

 has been absorbed by the roots. 



Seedling dates are nearly always found along irrigating canals or in 

 situations where the earth is kept constantly moist. These are strong 

 indications of the natural habitat of the date palm, which should be 

 expected to grow where the earth is very moist, at least during the 

 rainy season. It is practically impossible for date seedlings to start 

 in unirrigated arid situations, even where cacti and other desert plants 

 grow abundantly. 



As is clear from what has been said, the date does not reproduce true 

 to t}'po from seed. This may be in part because no attention has been 

 paid to the pedigree of the male plants used to furnish pollen, so that 

 even the choicest dates may have been pollinated from males of the 

 most worthless character. If it should be found desirable to plant 

 seedling orchards it would be well to arrange to have Deglet Noor 



a Fritsch, G. Anatomisch-physiologische Untersuchungen iiber die Keimung der 

 Dattelpalme, in Sitzungsb. d. k. Akad. d. Wiss. Wien, Bd. 93, Abth. I, April, 1886. 



