24 THE DATE PALM. 



VARIETIES OF MALE DATE PALMS. 



Some male trees produce more pollen than others, and are much 

 preferable to use in pollinating. When once good sorts of males are 

 found they should be propagated by offshoots in the same manner as 

 the female plants. In most parts of the Algerian Sahara no particular 

 attention is paid to the propagation of suitable male palms, and in 

 consequence pollen is sometimes scarce early in the flowering season 

 and again later on, which often renders it necessary to procure pollen 

 from neighboring orchards or even from other oases, sometimes at 

 considerable trouble and expense. In Tunis there is a male variety 

 propagated by offshoots called the Deglaoui used to pollinate late- 

 blooming sorts. Another called the Dakar majahel was secured by 

 Mr. D. G. Fairchild in Egypt, and has been sent to the Cooperative 

 Date Garden at Tempe, Ariz. It is said to be the only male palm 

 which produces pollen at the right time to be used on all of the eight 

 varieties of female dates grown about Ramley, Eg} r pt. 



The chief requisite of a male date palm is that it shall produce an 

 abundance of pollen at the right time to be used in pollinating the 

 female sorts that are grown. If date palms were propagated from 

 seed, and still more if any attempt should be made to breed new and 

 better sorts, it would be very desirable to secure male sorts capable of 

 transmitting desirable characteristics to their offspring. (See p. 20.) 



Schweinf urth has recently put forth the claim a that the male sort 

 used for pollinating the flowers has a decided influence on the shape 

 and, what is more important, on the size of the seed of the dates which 

 result. If this were true it would be very important to secure male 

 sorts which when used for pollination would produce small seeds. 

 Schweinfurth's supposition is, however, without doubt erroneous, for 

 in spite of his assertion that the observed variability of the seed in 

 dates of the same variety b is a proof of the effect of the different sorts 

 of pollen used to fertilize the flowers, the fact is that the seeds of any 

 one sort are so uniform in size and shape as to furnish good characters 

 for use in distinguishing varieties, and are regularly so employed by 

 both Europeans and Arabs. The only part of the seed which could 

 be affected directly by the male parent is the embryo, which in the 

 date occupies so small a fraction of the bulk of the seed that it is not 

 surprising that there is no observable effect of the pollen on the seed 

 and much less on the pulp which surrounds it. 



a Schweinfurth, Dr. Georg. Ueber die Kultur der Dattelpalme. In Gartenflora, 

 vol. 50, 1901, p. 513. 



& Naturally the seeds are not all exactly alike, even on the same tree, and some 

 varieties of dates have seeds which vary appreciably in shape and even in size; but 

 this range of variation is itself a varietal character. Of course the incorrect identifi- 

 cations of dates often made offhand by the Arabs may easily lead to erroneous ideas 

 as to the extent of variation in a sort through a confusion of varieties similar in 

 external appearance, but differing in seed characters. 



