36 THE DATE PALM. 



It would be desirable to test this sort in the Sal ton Basin, and if pos- 

 sible some offshoots will be secured by the Department of Agriculture 

 directly from the Sahara, since it will be some two or three years 

 before any can be taken from the plants now growing at Tempe." 



The Deglet Noor is by no means common in the Sahara, and according 

 to Masselot b it was carried about two hundred and f orty years ago from 

 the oasis of Temassin near Tougourt, where it originated, to the oases of 

 southern Tunis. It had then been known in Temassin only about sixty 

 years, so the variety is about three centuries old. Masselot gives the 

 following account of its origin as told by the Arabs: "A revered saint, 

 Leila Noora, had the habit of making daily ablutions at a point in the 

 oasis of Temassin called ' Blidet-Amar.' c A seed sprouted fortuitousl} 7 

 at this point and produced a palm of a new sort of degal (soft date) 

 which was called degal ennoura or deglat ennour in remembrance of 

 the saint." Most authorities derive the name from the Arabic noor 

 " light" and " degal " or " deglet? " soft date," meaning " the date of 

 the light" or " the transparent date." This is considered by Masselot 

 as an error, as some other sorts are more transparent; he maintains 

 that the name means simply " Noora's date." 



THE KHALAS DATE. 



Mr. Fairchild has also very recently (summer of 1902) secured at 

 Bahrein offshoots of the famous Khalas, a date from the province of 

 Lahsa or Hassa in eastern Arabia, near the Persian Gulf. Gurnet/ 

 in his celebrated work on Turkey, refers to it as the most delicious of 

 known dates. 



The celebrated traveler Palgrave mentions this variety as occurring 

 in the province of Hassa between Hof hoof and Mebarraz in east-central 

 Arabia, and says : e 



Here and for many leagues around grow the dates entitled "Khalas" a word of 

 which the literal and not inappropriate English translation is "quintessence" a 

 species peculiar to Hassa, and the facile princeps of its kind. The fruit itself is rather 

 smaller than the Kassem date, of a rich amber color, verging on ruddiness, and semi- 

 transparent. It would be absurd to attempt by description to give any idea of a taste, 

 but I beg my Indian readers at least to believe that a "Massigaum" mango is not 

 more superior to a "Jungalee" than is the Khalas fruit to that current in the Syrian 

 or Egyptian marts. In a word, it is the perfection of the date. The tree that bears 

 it may by a moderately practiced eye be recognized by its stem, more slender than 

 that of the ordinary palm, its less tufted foliage, and its smoother bark. Its 



An experimental date orchard has been established very recently in the Salton 

 Basin at Mecca (Walters), Cal. Several large Deglet Noor palms have been trans- 

 planted from Tempe to Mecca and many Deglet Noor offshoots have been ordered 

 from the Sahara. (See footnote, p. 110. ) 



& Masselot, F. Les dattiers des oasis du Djerid. in Bulletin de la Direction de 

 1'Agriculture et du Commerce, Tunis, vol. 6, No. 19, April, 1901, pages 117-118. 



cBled et Ahmar near Temacin (Map, PI. II, p. 76). 



dCuinet, La Turquie, Vol. Ill, p. 233. 



* Palgrave, William Gifford. Narrative of a Year's Journey Through Central and 

 Eastern Arabia, Vol. I, London, 1865, pp. 172-173. 



