16 BULLETI]Sr 1125, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



to a nearly flat blade with broad, coarse, overlapping pinnae. The uncured 

 fruits are about If inches long, 1^ or If inches in diameter, irregularly egg 

 shaped. They are a rich orange color in ripening, dull tan wlien mature. 

 The thick amber-colored flesh is a little coarse, but very rich and luscious. 

 The seeds, about 1 inch long by three-eighths of an inch broad, have mostly 

 rounded ends, a rather shallow ventral furrow, and the germ pore nearly 

 central. In the heavy soil and unusual moisture conditions, together with the 

 cooler climate of the Tempe Garden, this variety has perfected but little 

 edible fruit, and the ripening has been very uneven. 



By the use of this description the writer identified the " Oga 

 de Bedrichen" trees at Tempe, Ariz., with trees called "Sewi" 

 which he examined in September, 1913, in the gardens at Bedrashen 

 and later in the section about Hawamdia and Abu el Nemrus. (PL 

 II Figs. 1 and 2.) 



During the following October the writer visited Kharga and 

 Dakhla Oases of western Egypt, and there observed the very close 

 similarity of the Saidy variety, the great commercial date of the five 

 western oases, with the " Sewi " of Gizeh Province. Near Kharga 

 village are the imposing ruins of the temple built by Darius I at 

 Hibis, about 500 B. C. (PL III.) It was from luxuriant Saidy 

 palms growing beside this temple gateway that the writer made 

 the first critical study of the leaf and fruit characters which was 

 to establish the identity of the Saidy with the " Sewi " variety of 

 Gizeh. 



It was also during a stay of a week in late October at Rashida 

 village in Dakhla Oasis, a center of extensive Saidy plantations 

 (PL IV, Fig. 1), that another interesting bit of information was 

 picked up. The date harvest was nearly completed, and a camel 

 caravan from each district was starting for the river by the " Derb el 

 Tawil " or " Long Road " nearly every night. In a conversation 

 the Sheik Abu Bakr, the omda of the village, expounded the im- 

 portance of the Saidy variety to the western oases substantially 

 as follows: 



This date is the one marketable commodity we can depend upon in all of 

 these oases. We have the same variety in all of them. We have it in Siwa, 

 away to the north. We have it at Baharia. very many trees. We have it at 

 Farafra. We have it, as you see, here in Dakhla, more than anywhere else. 

 We have it at Kharga, where you came through. We can raise enough rice 

 and wheat for our bread, but we must have something to sell to get sugar and 

 tea and cloth and some money to pay our taxes, and this date is what we 

 all depend upon. We all call it by the same name, the Saidy, but when these 

 Bedouin traders get over to the valley with it they call it the " Wahi." 



It was thus through this conversation with a friendly oasis sheik, 

 200 miles back in the Libyan Desert, that the location and the true 

 identity of the long-sought " Wahi " date was learned after 12 years 

 of search. The solution of the puzzle is really quite simple. The 

 Arabic for an oasis is " wah," feminine " wahat " ; thus Dakhla, in 

 an Egyptian census of taxable date palms, is " el Wahat el Dakhla." 

 The Bedouin traders, ever fond of making a mystery of where they 

 obtain their goods, call this date in the valley bazaars "Wahi," 

 vaguely, the date from " el wah," or the oasis, so that the name 

 Saidy is quite unknown to the Egyptian public. In the same manner 

 Hay any dates grown in the district near Birket el Hadji, the " Pool 

 of the Pilgrims," on the borderland between the delta and the 

 hot sand dunes of the Arabian Desert, bein^ the earliest of that va- 

 riety to reach the market, were known as Bala Birket el Hadji." 



