

VARIETIES OF THE DATE PALM IN TUNIS. 55 



come very- soft. Some kinds, both of soft and of dry dates, can be 

 preserved several years without spoiling, although dry dates are apt 

 to become excessively hard when kept for a long time. Soft, sirupy 

 dates of good keeping quality, such as the Rhars and the Lagoo, are 

 preserved in earthenware jars or in skin bags. The finer sorts, such 

 as the Deglet Noor, are often hung up in bunches in the houses of 

 the natives, and are picked off or else served on the branch as wanted. 

 It is said that the fruits of some varieties can be preserved only by 

 leaving them on the bunch until they are completely dry, when they 

 can be detached. Others which are especially liable to become 

 wormy should be dried in the sun, after first splitting them open and 

 removing the seeds. 



VARIETIES OF THE DATE PALM IN TUNIS. 



While it is impossible to state exactly the number of well-defined 

 varieties of the date palm occurring in Tunis, it is probably not far 

 from 150. The Jerid oases are particularly rich in varieties, con- 

 taining considerably more than 100 distinct kinds. Some of these 

 are extremely local. . At Nefta several varieties were seen that appar- 

 ently do not occur at Tozer, while in the Nefzaoua there are many 

 kinds that are very rare or entirely w r anting in the Jerid, and vice 

 versa. Yet certain varieties (the Kenta and Areshty, for example) 

 are widely distributed, being found not only in all the Tunis oases, 

 but also in those of eastern Algeria. Each group of oases in Tunis 

 has its characteristic varieties. Thus, in the Jerid the Fteemy is 

 by far the most abundant sort, while in the Nefzaoua, Gabes, and 

 Gafsa groups it is rare or absent. Varieties such as Doonga and 

 Zekry, which are important and highly esteemed in the Nefzaoua, 

 are hardly known in the Jerid, although the nearest oases of the two 

 groups are only about 30 miles distant. The Boo Hath'm variety, 

 one of the most abundant at Gabes and at Gafsa, is apparently want- 

 ing in the two other groups. 



Nearly all the gardens contain a large number of varieties, mixed 

 together in the greatest confusion. Only in the newer gardens of the 

 Jerid do we find plantations of the Deglet Noor occupying areas of 

 some size, to the exclusion of other kinds. One large garden at 

 Tozer is remarkable for containing almost solely the Deglet Noor and 

 Fteemy varieties, but this is a rare exception. The present tendency 

 is to plant Deglet Noor offshoots as fast as they can be obtained, and 



Du Paty de Clam published (Bui. de Geogr. Hist, et Descr., No. 3, 1893) a 

 list of 74 varieties found in the Jerid. Masselot (Bui. Dir. Agr. et Com. Tunis, 

 pp. 146-161, 1901) enumerates 94 named varieties. The writer was able to 

 obtain fruit of all but 23 of these, and examined fruits of 21 named varieties 

 not included in Masselot's catalogue. 

 92 



