DATES OF EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 21 



bullocks, which lift the water by means of an endless chain of earthen jars set on 

 heavy ropes. (PI. IV, fig. 2.) Where the lands are the best and the culture the most 

 intensive the sakiehs are often not more than 100 feet apart, and the moaning creak of 

 a score of these along the river bank on a hot tropical night is one of the memories 

 that will abide longest with the visitor to Dongola. 



Except in the newest plantations, there is little regularity in the setting of these 

 date trees and the practice of allowing from three to seven or eight "daughter" trees, 

 offshoots from the "mother" tree, to grow up around it, inclined at various angles 

 from the perpendicular, gives to these Dongola date plantations a weird and tropical 

 picturesqueness, which contrasts strongly with the straight-bodied, formal appearance 

 of the groves seen about Merg or Bedrashen. 



Either there is an appreciation of the fact that in this region of dry air and intense 

 heat a greater insulation of the growing center is needed, or perhaps the temptation 

 to remove leaf material to sell is not so great; at any rate, the tops of the Dongola date 

 trees are left much heavier than in Lower Egypt, and the leaves are not cut so closely 

 at the base. 



The Dongola people are apparently very well satisfied with their Barakawi industry 

 and are offering no offshoots for sale, but are planting new groves as fast as they can 

 get the material. 



The writer was informed that there is also a considerable production of this variety, 

 under the name "Ibrimi," in Berber Province, which is the uppermost date-produc- 

 ing region of the Nile Valley, including the fourth and fifth cataracts; for while there 

 are many date trees about Khartum, the fruit is hardly produced in commercial 

 quantities. 



In the reaches of the Nile Valley, between Wady Haifa and Korosko, there are 

 narrow stretches of alluvial land and islands which, together, permit the cultivation 

 of many thousands of date trees, of which this variety, under the name "Ibrimi," is 

 the chief. An important section of the valley is on some maps designated as Wady 

 Ibrim, to which an ancient ruin known as the Kasr Ibrim doubtless gave the name, 

 and which is now represented by a modern native village of the usual squalid type. 

 The product of this section reaches the markets of Lower Egypt under the name 

 "Ibrimi" and leads to the inclusion of the Barakawi dates from Dongola under the 

 same name. As there is a great variation in size and appearance among the dates 

 marketed as "Ibrimi" in Cairo, there is good ground for the suspicion that the crop 

 from a good many seedling trees bearing fruit closely resembling the original variety 

 is marketed under that name 



BENTAMODA. 



(Betamoda, Bartamoda.) 



of the Bentamoda variety have moderately heavy trunks and gracefully 



curved leaves 9 to 12 feet long, with light, slender ribs and narrow bases. The spine 



area is very short, the slender needlelike spines being from 1 inch long below to 5 or 



6 UN hes long where limy pas-- 1o lie- narrow, grassy ribbon pinna.'. The normal pinnae 



th from 12 or I'i inches 1o IS or rarely 21 inches at a little beyond the 



mid He of the blade, holding L2 to L6 inches to near the apex, where they shorten 



abruptly to . 1 to LO inche 



The pi n n. e are narrow throughout, seven-eighths of an Inch to! inch broad, rarely 



eding I ' or I J inches in the wider ones. Their texture is softand grasslike, with a 



thickness of 0.011 toO.01 1 of an inch. Thepulvini are light, in some cases slightly cau- 



late, but with no groups coalescent. A.1 the base of the blade the pinnae have alight 



I divergence and a ttong divergence Erom the blade plane, forming a narrow, 



open out toward the middle of the blade, where the pinnse are a1 



about 27° to 30° 1 1 "jo the blade plane, giving a rather smooth uniform leaf tow aid the 



apex. The general coloi is rather light green with a thin waxy bloom. 



