THE PALMS OF BBITISH IXJJIA AND CEYLON. 923 



"They differ from the dates,"' says Theophrast^, "by their 

 dimension, their shape and their taste ; large enough to fill one's 

 hand they are round and not oblong ; being of yellow colour they 

 contain a sweet and agreeable juice. They are not arranged in 

 bunches like the dates, but grow isolated. The kernel is large 

 and very hard. 



The limits were called • ququ' in ancient^ Egypt and it is not 

 difficult to recognise in this word the root of Theophrast's kovki (of 

 the word KOuiao(l)0909)- 



U.SE8. — The leaves of younger plants are eaten by camels. The 

 old leaves are put to many minor uses. 



The trunk is used for making water conduits. " and it is possi- 

 ble, "" says Burkill. '• that it might contain a little sago in just the 

 same measure as the common Indian fan palm, enough to makr 

 it a famine food." 



The thick fleshy-fibrous part of the fruit resembles gingerbread 

 both in colour and taste, hence the palm is often knoAvn as the 

 Gingerbread Tree. 



The chief use of the palm is for the manufacture of buttons from 

 the hard inner fruit-wall. It is also tiirned into beads for rosaries. 



Cultivation IN Europe. — The Doum Palm is diflScult to culti- 

 vate. It gvo^xs best in rich sand}" loam. Fresh seeds vegetate 

 readily, but the 3"oung plants are of slow and precarious growth. 



Cultivation in India. — Old specimens of the Egyptian Doum 

 Palms may be seen in many a garden of India and Ceylon, and, 

 as a rule, they are much better developed than the tree growing in 

 Egypt. The climate seems, indeed, to exercise a great influence 

 upon the development of this palm. When Haeckel saw the 

 Doum I^alm in Ceylon he was surprised to find it there under an 

 aspect so altered that he could scarcel}^ recognize them. 



••' Adaptation,"" he says, " to perfectly different conditions of 

 existence have made the Doum Palm of Egypt quite another tree 

 in Ceylon. The trunk is developed to at least double the thick- 



■'- Theophrastus I. clib. IV, cap. 2, 7. 



- Loret, V. Recherches sur quelques plantes. I. Les Palmiers cVB^ypte- (Recueil 

 lie travaux relatifs a la Philolo.aie et a TArcheoloo-ie og-yptiennes et assyriennes*. 

 t. II. p. 24. 



Joret, C Des nomt< de palmier (Revue des etudes i-'recques. Paris (1802), p. 417, 



