

VARIETIES OF PRIMARY IMPORTANCE. 63 



Although the Arabs invariably relate the history givon above in 

 attempting to account for the passing of this choice variety, it is pos- 

 sible that there are other reasons for its rarity. Some of the garden- 

 ers who are familiar with it say that very careful nursing is required 

 to make Menakher offshoots live and grow. On the other hand, Si 

 Brahim Ben Ouedi, of Nefta, the owner of a fine young palm of this 

 variety, says that while great care must be taken in detaching and 

 planting Menakher offshoots, they are afterwards as easy to grow as 

 those of other varieties. 



After an exhaustive search of all the Jerid oases for Menakher off- 

 shoots only nine could be obtained, for importation into the United 

 States, of which six were so small that little hope was entertained of 

 their living. Fortunately, they have been given every care in the 

 cooperative date gardens of the Department of Agriculture and the 

 Arizona and California experiment sta- 

 tions at Tempe, Ariz., and Mecca, Cal., 

 and when seen by the writer in Septem- 

 ber, 1905, all of them seemed likely to 

 grow. So even if this valuable date be- 

 comes extinct in the country of its origin, 

 there is a fair prospect of its being con- 

 tinued in the United States. It should 

 be stated that one of the finest of the 



, . . ,1 TA Fio.7. Outlines of DegletNoor seed 



offshoots was a gift to the Department and fruit. (Natural size.) 



of Agriculture on the part of Si Brahim 



Ben Ouedi, of Nefta, from the tree mentioned above and represented 

 in Plate V, figure 1. 



DEGLET NOOR (p. 104). A soft date (Pis. I and VIII, fig. 1) 1J to 

 a little over 2 inches long, and about one-half as wide, ovate oblong 

 in shape, generally widest at or near the middle, and blunt pointed at 

 the apex, often narrowed also at the base, maroon colored when ripe, 

 the flesh 2 to 3 lines thick, translucent, the seed a little more than one 

 half as long as the fruit, conspicuously pointed, and dark chestnut- 

 brown in color. (Fig. 7.) The stalks and branches of the fruit clus- 

 ters are bright yellow (not orange), the stalks long and slender, 

 sharply curved near the base, so that the bunches hang down far 

 below the crown of foliage. (PI. VI, fig. 1.) The trunk is com- 

 paratively slender. The foliage is light and delicate looking, and 

 the narrow leaves and leaflets are rather yellowish green. The spines 

 are slender and weak. 



This well-known variety is largely exported to Europe from Al- 

 geria and Tunis, and is practically the only North African date 

 that is known in the United States. There can be no doubt that the 



a Described in Bui. 53, Bureau of Plant Industry, pp. 33-36. 



92 < 



