352 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



Flowers at the beginning of the hot season. Fruit ripens in 

 September and October. 



Uses. — In many localities, especially in Jessore and other districts 

 of Bengal, this species is* of considerable importance, owing to the 

 extensive use of its sap in making sugar. According to Sir 

 George Watt, there were in 1889, 168,262 acres of this palm 

 under cultivation connected with the sugar supply. Sir James 

 Westland has given a full account of the process of tapping the 

 trees and of the manufacture of sugar from the crude sap in his 

 " Eeport on the District of Jessore, 1874." When the tree is 

 ripe the process of tapping begins, and it is continued each year 

 thereafter. There are in the Date-palm two series or stories as it 

 were, of leaves ; the crown leaves, which rise straight out from the 

 top of the trunk, being, so to speak, a continuation of it ; and the 

 lateral leaves, which spring out of the side of the top part of the 

 trunk. When the rainy season has completely passed, and there 

 is no more fear of rain, the cultivator cuts off the lateral leaves for 

 one-half of the circumference, and thus leaves bare a surface 

 measuring about 10 or 12 inches each way. This surface is at 

 first a brilliant white, but becomes by exposure quite brown, and 

 puts on the appearance of coarse matting. The surface thus laid 

 bare is not the woody fibre of the tree, but is a bark formed of 

 many thin layers, and it is these layers which thus change their 

 colour and texture. 



" After the tree has remained for a few days thus exposed, the 

 tapping is performed by making a cut into this exposed surface, in 

 the shape of a very broad V, about three inches across and a 

 quarter or half inch deep. Then the surface inside the angle of 

 the V is cut down, so that a triangular surface is cut into the tree. 

 From this surface exudation of the sap takes place, and caught by 

 the sides of the V, it runs down to the angle, where a bamboo of 

 the size of a lead pencil is inserted in the tree to catch the dropping 

 sap and carry it out as by a spout. 



" The tapping is arranged, throughout the season, by periods of 

 six days each. On the first evening a cut is made as just described, 

 and the juice is allowed to run during the night. The juice so 

 flowing is the strongest and best, and is called jiran juice. In the 



