VARIETIES THAT SHOULD BE TESTED. 39 



Another sort of great promise is the Wahi, of which samples were 

 secured by Mr. Fairchild in the market of Fayoum, in "west-central 

 Egypt. This variety is said to come from the oasis of Seewah, known 

 to the ancients as Ammon, or Ammonium, some 300 miles to the west- 

 ward, in the interior of the Sahara Desert. The date is brown, less 

 transparent than the Deglet Noor, but rather longer and decidedly 

 broader; the seed is blunter and much more irregular in outline. The 

 flesh is yellowish, granular midway between the skin and the seed, and 

 of a most delicious llavor. This date had been gathered and kept, 

 with no precautions against drying out, for at least eight months \vlirn 

 it was received at Washington, but it was still in very good condition, 

 except for the attacks of weevils. It seems to be a better keeper and 

 to have a higher flavor than the Deglet Noor. Nothing is known as 

 to the palm which produces this date, but from the quality of the 

 fruit it is presumably a late-maturing variety. 



Dates of a superlatively good quality are reported from Morocco, 

 and Mr. O. F. Cook a obtained some years ago at Tangiers, from a 

 European official in the emplo3 r of the Sultan, dates which he considers 

 superior to the Deglet Noor. These dates were about as long as 

 and somewhat thicker than the Deglet Noor, but more wrinkled and 

 of a darker color. They were covered with a bloom and were so dry 

 that the flesh was firm and not at all sticky. At London a prominent 

 produce dealer in Covent Garden market assured the writer that the 

 Tafilet dates were better than the Deglet Noors, which are also much 

 appreciated in England. Inasmuch as the drier grades of Deglet Noor 

 dates are preferred in England, it may be that the Tafilet dates of the 

 London markets are the same as the dry variety Mr. Cook secured at 

 Tangiers. No good dates are produced west of the Atlas Mountains in 

 Morocco, and any sort of superior quality must come from the Moroc- 

 can Sahara, very probably from Tafilet, the largest and most impor- 

 tant Moroccan oasis, though Mdaghra and Tissini are also reported to 

 produce excellent dates. Rohlfs, 6 the celebrated African explorer, 

 says: " The dates of Tafilet are known as the best in the whole desert; 

 the varieties Buskri, Bu Hafs, and Fukus are most sought and bring 

 the highest price." 



The importance of securing a date possibly superior to the Deglet 

 Noor would warrant sending Arab or Berber merchants to these oases 

 to investigate the quality of the dates and to secure offshoots of the 

 better sorts. In the present unsettled state of trans- Atlasian Morocco 

 it would be hazardous for Americans or Europeans to venture there. 



The Mirhage date of Mandalay, some three days' journey from Bag- 

 dad, and the very similar but somewhat inferior Maktum of Bagdad, 



Oral communication to the writer, 1900. 



& Rohlfs, Gerhard. Tagebuch seiner Reise (lurch Morocco nach Tuat. In Peter- 

 mann's Geographische Mittheilungen, 1865, Heft 5, p. 175. 



