VARIETIES 



[In the following list of varieties I have given first, in each case, 

 what I consider the correct spelling of the variety name, followed by 

 variations which have been used in print, and the English meaning 

 of the name, when I knew it. The list includes only one-fourth of 

 the varieties which have been grown in the United States, but I 

 believe it lacks none which is of any importance now.] 



Amari, Ammary, Ammaree, The Abundant, 

 a common Sakaran variety, valued because it is 

 one of the first to bear. It is the earliest North 

 African date in the United States, but its quality 

 here, as in its native home, is mediocre. The fruit 

 is dark and soft. It ripens in August, or (in some 

 parts of Tunisia) in the middle of July. It is rarely 

 seen on the market, as the growers eat it up as rapidly 

 as it ripens, picking it from the bunch as it matures. 

 It ripens unevenly, a whole cluster never maturing 

 at once. The palm is productive; the foliage coarse 

 and heavy, leaves very numerous, rather short 

 stalked, with long, wide leaflets. Stalks and branches 

 of fruit-clusters are orange-colored. 



Fruit one and one-fourth to one and one-half 

 inch long, about one-half as wide, generally inversely 

 egg-shaped, square at base, rounded at apex. Color 

 dark brown purple. Flesh one-eighth inch thick, 

 soft and dark-colored, fibrous. Seed two-thirds as 

 long as fruit, two-fifths as wide as long, mars brown 

 in color, blunt at both ends, ventral channel open, 

 germ pore indistinct. (Kearney). 



Amhat, The Pure (?), one of the commonest 

 Egyptian varieties; has not yet fruited in the United 

 States. A small date, orange-yellow in color, usually 

 eaten only in the fresh, soft (rutab) condition, except 



