DATES OF EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 17 



DESCRIPTION OF VARIETIES. 



AGLANY. 



Trees of the Aglany variety are tall and have slender trunks and leaves 10 to 12 

 feet long, with a graceful curve at the apex. The leaf bases are 7 to 9 inches broad 

 and about 2 inches thick, diminishing gradually to the normal size of the rib, which 

 has a regular taper to the rather slender apex. The dorsal surface of the rib is moder- 

 ately rounded, while the ventral surface presents a sharply angled ridge. The spine 

 area is about 20 per cent of the blade length; the spines are rather heavy, tapering to 

 a slender acute apex, 2.5 to 9 inches or even 12 inches long, passing to a thick ribbon 

 pinna 18 to 26 inches long. The normal pinna? at 3 to 6 feet from the base of the 

 blade are 22 to 27 inches long and three-fourths or seven-eighths of an inch to 1J inches 

 broad. From the middle of the blade they gradually diminish in length, but are still 

 18 to 21 inches long at 10 feet from the base and 13 to 1 6 inches long at the apex. Their 

 greatest breadth, 1J to If inches, is at from 6 to 10 feet from the base. The pulvini are 

 heavy, those on the spine and lower pinnae being very heavy, but only slightly caudate, 

 and there are no coalescent groups of pinna?. The thickness of the pinnae blades is 

 about 0.017 to 0.018 of an inch. 



The antrorse pinna? fo^i about 25 per cent of the whole number on the blade, the 

 introrse and retrorse about 35 per cent each, the others being undetermined. The 

 paired groups of pinna? form more than half of the entire number, the triple groups 

 rank next, and there are a few quadruple groups. 



The divergence of the pinna? from the rachis is rather slight, about 15° to 20° for the 

 antrorse and 25° to 30° for the introrse and retrorse classes. They lie close to the 

 blade plane, the outer half of the blade being broad, smooth, and nearly flat. 



The fruit 1 is If to If inches long, three-quarters of an inch in diameter, narrowly 

 elliptical in outline; color, lemon yellow, curing to a dull brown. The skin is thin, the 

 flesh three-sixteenths to one-quarter of an inch thick. These dates, when fully ripe, 

 are very sweet and sirupy, but rich enough in sugar to enable them to be dried and 

 packed for shipment though they are largely eaten fresh. The seeds are 1 inch long, 

 five-sixteenths of an inch broad, rather oblong, with broadly rounded ends. The 

 ventral furrow is deep, the germ pore being nearly central. At Salihieh, where this 

 variety is chiefly grown, it is ripe about the first week of November. 



AMHAT. 



(Notes taken at Bedrashen and Abu Nemrus.) 



Trees of the Amhat variety are tall (PL III, fig. 2) and have medium-heavy trunks 

 and glaucous blue leaves 10£ to 13£ feet long, with bases of moderate width and the 

 rather stout ribs strongly rounded dorsally and decidedly arched ventrally, giving 

 unusual approach to a cylindrical cross section. 2 The spine area is 2$ to 4£ feet, the 

 medj urn-heavy spines from 2 or 3 inches long below to 8 or 9 inches in the upper ones 

 and passing to stout spike pinnae 23 to 27 inches long. The succeeding normal pinna 

 jr<- 2 I to -7 Inches long, decreasing but slightly till near the apex, where they drop to 

 20, 17, and finally 14 inche 



The pinnas range in width from I', to li inches, only a few of the apical ones dropping 

 to five-eighths or three fourths of an inch broad, and they are rather firm and stiff 



1 l or the character) of the ripe trull the ■■■■ rlter I Indebted to Mr. Thomas w. Brown, horticulturist ol 



ptl m Mini. try of AgriCUJ 



1 i or tii't system of technical desci Ipl Ion . used In the following pages see " Botanical Characters of the 

 of the i>ut<; Palm rjsed In Distinguishing Cultivated Varieties," Bulletin 223, United States 

 Department oi Agriculture, by un- writer oi this i-uiietin. 



96613° -Bull. 271 L5 --3 



