THE DATE-PALM IN PERSIA. 891 



"When the fruit is well drained boil the sugar briskly, pat the drained fruit in it 

 cover up yonr pan (a large one) after one boiling, then withdraw it from the fire, 

 work your sugar until entirely melted. Take the fruit out with a skimmer, put them 

 on gridirons in a drying stove. The price of candied fruit varies according to qual- 

 ity and kind from 2 to 4 francs per kilogram (abont 2 pounds)." 



THE DATE-PALM IN PERSIA. 



REPORT BY MINISTER PRATT. 

 [Repnblishod from Consular Reports No. 86.] 



As a first result of my endeavors to obtain practical information on 

 the subject of the date-palm (Phcenix dactilifera), with a view to its 

 introduction into the United States and cultivation along our South 

 Atlantic and Gulf coast and in Lower California, I have succeeded in 

 gathering from Persian sources the following : 



The date-palm is found in countries situated within the zone of 16 

 and 30 degrees north and south latitude. Incept, however, in rare 

 instances it will bear no fruit in localities removed 120 or 135 miles 

 from the sea. 



There are two methods employed for propagating the date- tree ; one 

 by setting the date stone, the other by transplanting the seedling 

 (self-sown). 



When it is desired to raise a plant from the stone of the date one 

 perfectly ripe and faultless is selected and both ends are either filed, 

 or scraped off with a knife, until the inner kernel is laid bare. It is 

 then planted in a mixture of gravel, sand, and camel manure. From 

 twelve to forty days usually elapse before it makes its appearance 

 above ground. It will then put forth long, narrow, thin, and tender 

 leaves, somewhat the shape of a saddler's needle. From the fourth to 

 the seventh year it produces nothing except long, rough, reed-like 

 leaves. It is t however, possible that during this period the tree may, 

 from its leaves, which resemble the shoots of the oleander, bring forth 

 other leaves j but owners of palm gardens pluck off these in order to 

 give the tree a graceful appearance. Under no circumstances, how- 

 ever, do they touch the leaves that shoot out from the crown of the 

 tree. If its head is severed from its body the whole tree withers and 

 dies. Each individual plant is either male or female. 



When the tree has attained its full stature a flowering branch is 

 cut from the male palm and applied to the half-open flower bowl of 

 the female, thus giving it the fecundating principle without which 

 it can not mature its fruit germs. 



In no instance has it been recorded by botanists that one of these trees 

 possessed in itself the different natures of male and female, and for 

 this reason was it that the Arab ^avants classed the palm as the first 

 of the vegetable kingdom and the last of the animaL 



