xvi PREFACE 



ment, and by many other foreign governments, as well 

 as learned societies, institutions, and individuals, so 

 that it may fairly be said to represent the universal 

 practice of enlightened people. It seems a pity that 

 the date growers of the United States should be the 

 only ones to lag behind the march of progress; and 

 I have, therefore, not hesitated to make changes in 

 accepted spellings, when necessary to make them 

 conform to standard, excepting in a few cases like 

 the word Deglet, which may fairly be considered a 

 trade name now, and the correct form of which, 

 Daqlet, would hardly be recognized. 



There is the less excuse for the confusion into which 

 date nomenclature has fallen because most of it was 

 caused by the erroneous supposition that what was a 

 correct spelling for the French language was a correct 

 spelling for the English. A date was therefore intro- 

 duced under the name of Rhars, when all English 

 practice demanded that it be called Ghars a spelling 

 that is also in more accord with the pronunciation of 

 natives in the district where it grows. As the French 

 government itself has now adopted the spelling 

 Ghars, there is little excuse for asking Americans to 

 retain a French mistake which the French themselves 

 repudiate, and I have accordingly adopted the 

 spelling Ghars throughout. 



Even more conspicuously unnecessary is such a 

 spelling as Hadji, for a word which is correctly trans- 

 literated by everyone Hajji. The Frenchman, with 

 his peculiar pronunciation of the letter j, may have 

 needed the spelling Hadji, but surely the American 

 did not; yet he was asked to accept it, as he was 

 asked at another period to accept the vulgar pronun- 

 ciation of the Egyptian peasant Haggi. If pro- 



