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



lies between the Euphrates and the south of the Atlas and the 

 Canaries, the Date Palm has not succeeded in similar latitudes, or at 

 least it has not become an important culture. It might be grown 

 with success in Australia and at the Cape, but the Europeans who 

 have colonized these regions are not satisfied, like the Arabs, with 

 figs and dates for their staple food. I think, in fine, that in times 

 anterior to the earliest Egyptian dynasties the Date Palm already 

 existed, wild or sown here and there by wandering tribes, in a 

 narrow zone extending from the Euphrates to the Canaries, and 

 that its cultivation began later as far as the north-west of India on 

 the one hand and the Cape de Verde Islands on the other, so that 

 the natural area has remained very nearly the same for about five 

 thousand years. What it was previously, palseontological dis- 

 coveries may one day reveal." 



Uses. — The importance of the Date Palm is very extensive. 

 A considerable part of the inhabitants of Egypt, Arabia and Persia 

 subsist almost entirely on its fruit. They make a conserve of it 

 with sugar, and even grind the hard stones in their hand-mills for 

 their camels. " All Fezzan and half of Tripolitania satisfy most of 

 their wants with the products of it. The huts of the poorer classes 

 are entirely made of its leaves, and the more substantial habitations 

 of the rich chiefly consist of the same material ; every door, every 

 post is made of its wood, and the ceilings of the rooms are formed 

 by its trunks. The footstalks furnish- the most common fuel, and 

 they are often brought on men's backs from a distance of six to 

 eight miles. The fruit is the common food of both man and beast : 

 camels, horses, dogs, all eat dates. Even the stones are soaked in 

 water, and when they have thus become soft are given to the cattle. 

 The number of the Date Palms cultivated is enormous. When 

 Abdel-Gelil besieged Suckna, in 1824, he cut down no fewer than 

 43,000 trees, to compel the town to surrender; nevertheless there 

 are still at least 70,000 left. Their produce is comparatively small, 

 a hundred full-grown trees yielding about forty cwts. of dates. 

 These, after having been gathered, are dried in the sun, and quite 

 hard buried in the sand. They may thus be preserved about two 

 years, but generally after eighteen months they are attacked by 

 worms, and in the beginning of the third year nothing remains of 



