THE PALMS OF INDIA AND CEYLON. 683 



Date Palm in his list of trees to be planted in his gardens. It is 

 true that except at Jericho dates seldom ripen in Palestine. Later, 

 Herodotus says of the Babylonian Date Palms that only the greater 

 part produced good fruit which was used for food. This seems to 

 indicate the beginning of a cultivation perfected by the selection 

 of varieties and of the transport of male flowers into the middle of 

 the branches of female trees, but it perhaps signifies also that 

 Herodotus was ignorant of the existence of the male plant. 



" To the west of Egypt the Date Palm had probably existed for 

 centuries or for thousands of years when Herodotus mentioned 

 them. He speaks of Libya. There is no historical record with 

 respect to the oases in the Sahara, but Pliny mentions the Date 

 Palm in the Canaries. 



" The names of the species bear witness to its great antiquity 

 both in Asia and in Africa, seeing they are numerous and very 

 different. The Hebrews called the Date Palm tamar, and the 

 ancient Egyptians beg. The complete difference between these 

 words, both very ancient, shows that these peoples found the 

 species indigenous and perhaps already named in Western Asia 

 and in Egypt. The number of Persian, Arabic, and Berber 

 names is incredible. Some are derived from the Hebrew word, 

 others from unknown sources. They often apply to different 

 states of the fruit, or to different cultivated varieties, which again 

 shows ancient cultivation in different countries. Webb and Ber- 

 thelot have not discovered a name for the Date Palm in the 

 language of the Guanchos, and this is much to be regretted. The 

 Greek name phoenix refers simply to Phoenicia, and the Phoeni- 

 cians, possessors of the Date Palm. The names dactylus and date 

 are derivations of dachel in a Hebrew dialect. No Sanskrit name 

 is known, whence it may be inferred that the plantations of 

 the Date Palm in Western India are not very ancient. The 

 Indian climate does not suit the species. The Hindustani name 

 kharma is borrowed from the Persian. 



" Further to the East the Date Palm remained long unknown. 

 The Chinese received it from Persia, in the third century of our 

 era, and its cultivation was resumed at different times, but they 

 have now abandoned it. As a rule, beyond the arid region which 



