THE DATE. 



253 



that the pollen had thus preserved its powers 

 during nineteen years. 



Pontanus, an Italian poet of the fifteenth 

 century, gives a glowing description of a female 

 date tree, which had stood lonely and barren, 

 near Otranto, in Italy, until a favouring wind 

 wafted toward it the pollen of a male that grew 

 at a distance of fifteen leagues. Father Labat, 

 in his account of America, relates a story of a 

 date tree in the island of Martinico. There 

 were palm trees of various other kinds in the 

 island, but there was only one date tree, which 

 grew near a convent. That tree produced fniit 

 which was grateful enough to the taste; but 

 when an increase of the number of the date 

 trees was wanted not a single one would grow 

 from the seed; and thus, after a number of un- 

 successful trials, they were obliged to send to 

 Africa for dates, the stones of which grew readily, 

 and produced abundantly. 



Hasselquist thus writes of the date palm from 

 Alexandria, while on his travels through Egypt. 

 "The first thing after my arrival here was to see 

 the date tree, the ornament and a great part of 

 the riches of this country. It had already blos- 

 somed; but I had nevertheless the pleasure of 

 seeing how the Arabs assist its fecundation, and 

 by that means secure to themselves a plentiful 

 harvest of a vegetable which was so important 

 to them, and known to them many centuries be- 

 fore any botanist dreamt of the difference of 

 sexes in vegetables. The gardener informed me 

 of this before I had time to inquire, and would 

 show me, as a very curious thing, the male and 

 female of the date tree ; nor could he conceive 

 how I, a Frank lately arrived, could know it 

 before ; for, says he, all who have yet come from 

 Europe to see this country have regarded this 

 relation either as a fable or a miracle. The Arab 

 seeing me inclined to be farther informed, ac- 

 companied me and my French interpreter to a 

 palm tree, which was very full of young fruit, 

 and had by him been wedded or fecundated with 

 the male when both were in blossom. This the 

 Arabs do in the following manner : When the 

 spadix has female flowers that come out of its 

 spatha, they search on a tree that has male 

 flowers, which they know by experience, for a 

 spadix which has not yet bursted out of its spa- 

 tha. This they open, take out the spadix, and 

 cut it lengthwise in several pieces, but take care 

 not to hurt the flowers. A piece of this spadix, 

 with male flowers, they put lengthwise between 

 the small branches of the spadix which hath 

 female flowers, and then lay the leaf of a palm 

 over the branches. In this situation I yet saw 

 the greatest part of the spadices which bore their 

 young fruit ; but the male flowers which were 

 put between were withered. The Arab, besides, 

 gave me the following anecdotes : First, unless 

 they in this manner wed and fecundate the date 



tree, it bears no fruit; secondly, they always 

 take the precaution to preserve some unopened 

 spatha, with male flowers, from one year to an- 

 other, to be applied for this purpose in case the 

 male flowers should miscarry or suffiar damage ; 

 thirdly, if they permit the spadix of tho male 

 flowers to burst or come out, it becomes useless 

 for fecundation ; therefore the person who cul- 

 tivates date trees must be careful to hit the right 

 time of assisting the fecundation, which is almost 

 the only nicety in their cultivation; fourthly, « 

 on opening the spatha, he finds all the male 

 flowers full of a liquid, which resembles the 

 finest dew ; it is of a sweet and pleasant taste, 

 resembling much the taste of fresh dates, but 

 much more refined and aromatic ; this was like- 

 wise confirmed by my interpreter, who had lived 

 thirty-two years in Egypt, and therefore had 

 opportunities enough of tasting both the nectar 

 of the blossoms and the fresh dates. 



" In Upper Egypt, many families subsist almost 

 entirely on dates. In Lower Egypt they don't 

 eat so many, rather choosing to sell them. The 

 inhabitants here yearly seU a considerable quan- 

 tity, which are chiefly carried to the towns in 

 Turkey, for which reason we see dates exposed 

 to sale in every town. The Egyptians make a 

 conserve of the fresh dates, mixing them with 

 sugar. This has an agreeable taste. The stones 

 or kernels of the dates are hard as horn, and no- 

 body would imagine that any animal would eat 

 them; but the Egyptians break them, grind 

 them on their hand-mills, and for want of better 

 food, give them to their camels, which eat them. 

 In Barbary they turn handsome beads for pater- 

 nosters of these stones. Of the leaves they make 

 baskets, or rather a kind of sheet bags, which 

 are used in Turkey on joumej's, and in their 

 houses. In Egypt they make fly-flaps of them, 

 convenient enough to drive away the numerous 

 insects which incommode a man in this country. 

 I have likewise seen brushes made of them, with 

 which they clean their sofas and clothes. The 

 hard boughs they use for fences round their gar- 

 dens, and cages to keep their fowls in, with 

 which they carry on a great traffic ; they also 

 use the boughs for several other things in hus- 

 bandry instead of other wood, of which they are 

 destitute. The trunk or stem is split up, and 

 used as beams for building houses, or for fire- 

 wood. They lay a whole tree across their cis- 

 terns, on which they wind the rope when they 

 draw water. The integument which covers the 

 tree between the boughs entirely resembles a 

 web, and has threads which run perpendicularly 

 and across : of this all the ropes used at the cis- 

 terns are made, as also the rigging of their smaller 

 vessels. They reckon in Egypt that date trees 

 aiford a sequin annually of profit for each tree. 

 It is common to see two, three, or four hundred 

 fruit-bearing date trees, all belonging to one 



