278 DATE GROWING 



rather sparse, spines few, slender and weak. Stalks 

 and branches of the fruit-clusters are pale orange. 



Fruit two inches long, one and one-third inch 

 wide, broadest near center or slightly above, tapering 

 gently to rounded or bluntly pointed apex and flat 

 or depressed base. When fresh it is light bay or 

 hazel brown, which changes to dark chestnut as the 

 date cures; and the thin and tender skin at the same 

 time rises in loose, indiscriminate folds and blisters 

 of a cinnamon color. Flesh three-sixteenths inch 

 thick, firm but tender. Seed one and one-fourth 

 inch long, one-fourth inch wide, brownish terra 

 cotta color with some gray near base, rounded or 

 broadly pointed at each end, germ pore slightly 

 nearer apex than base, ventral channel deep but 

 nearly or quite closed, surface of seed irregularly 

 roughened. Flavor pronounced but agreeable, nutty, 

 not cloying. 



Ruhm al Ghazal, a variety brought from the 

 oasis of Siwah (Jupiter Ammon of the ancients) 

 on the frontier between Egypt and Cyrenaica, which 

 has produced very good fruit in California. It may 

 be the same as Ghazali of the same oasis, which is 

 said to be "not very productive, though its dates 

 are marvelous in flavor, appearance, and power 

 to keep long. " A variety of the same name grows 

 in the delta of Egypt, but its identity and relationships 

 have not been worked out. Dates from Siwah, 

 recently sent to the United States under the name 

 of Gorm Gazaly, may be the same thing.* 



*S. P. I. Inventory, Dept. of Agric., No. 32896. The name is 

 there translated Antelope's Abode; it is more likely Jaram al Ghazal, 

 The Gazelle's Dry Date, or Qarm al Ghazal, the Gazelle's Food. 



