THE DATE. 



257 



makes it easily split lengthwise into tln-oads. 

 The medullary part is much more abundant and 

 soft toward the centre of the tree than, toward 

 the circumference ; and, therefore, when it is to 

 be used as timber, the trunk is generally cleft in 

 two down the middle, for the pui-pose of allow- 

 ing the heart to dry and harden. 



The medullary part of the date tree is partly 

 farinaceous, and soluble in water ; and a nutri- 

 tious substance may be obtained from it, resem- 

 bling in consistency the sago which is obtained 

 from another kind of pglm. In the proper date 

 tree, however, it is small in quantity, and by no 

 means good in quality. From another, and a 

 much smallerspecies ( phoenix farinif era), which 

 is a native of the East Indies, the supply is much 

 more abundant. This farinaceous date tree grows 

 upon the dry and sandy parts of the east or Co- 

 romandel coast of the peninsula of Hindoostan. 

 It is a very low tree, or rather a great leafy bush, 

 for the trunk is never above a foot and a half or 

 two feet in height, and the leaves completely 

 conceal it. This palm is of a much deeper green, 

 and has the leaves much narrower, than those of 

 the date. It fruits and flowers nearly in the 

 same manner. The hemes are about the size of 

 kidney beans, and of a shining black; they have 

 not much pulp, but what they have is sweet and 

 mealy. In times of scarcity the natives of Hin- 

 doostan have recourse to the wood of this palm 

 for food. When the stem is divested of the 

 leaves, and of the brown fibrous matter with 

 which their roots are enveloped, it is about eigh- 

 teen inches long, and six in diameter where 

 thickest. The outside of it consists of woody 

 fibres, of a white colour, and very much matted 

 together, and within these the farinaceous mat- 

 ter is contained. To obtain that, the natives 

 split the trunk into longitudinal pieces, dry 

 them, beat them in mortars, and then sift the 

 mass to separate the fibres. After this, the fa- 

 rina is ready for being boiled info gruel, or congee, 

 as it is called in India ; but it is bitter, and far 

 inferior to sago. It has, however, occasionally 

 been of miich use, and saved the lives of the 

 people at times when famine has threatened them 

 with destruction. 



Even the leaves of the date palm have their 

 uses ; their great length and comparatively small 

 breadth, and their toughness, render them very 

 good materials for the construction of coarse 

 ropes, baskets, panniers, and mats. On the con- 

 tinent of Europe, palm-branches are a regular 

 article of trade; and the religions processions, 

 both of Christians and Jews, in the greater part 

 of Europe, are supplied from some palm-forests 

 near the shores of the Gulf of Genoa. 



The cultivation of the date tree is an object of 

 high importance in the countries of the East. In 

 the interior of Barbary, in great part of Egypt, 

 in the more dry districts of Syria, and in Arabia, 



it is almost the sole svibjcct of agriculture. In 

 the valleys of the Hedjaz there are more than a 

 hundred kinds of dates, each of which is pecu- 

 liar to a district, and has its own peculiar vir- 

 tues. Date trees pass from one person to ano- 

 ther in the course of trade, and are sold by the 

 single tree ; and the price paid to a girl's father, 

 on marrying her, often consists of date trees. 



The palm is not wholly confined to the warmer 

 latitudes, though in those only it matures its 

 fruit. There are greenhouse specimens in many 

 parts of England. Some of the more luxuriant 

 parts of the province of Valencia, in the south- 

 east of Spain, have very fine forests of date-palms, 

 from which, as well as from the neighbourhood 

 of Genoa, palm branches are exported. There 

 are date palms upon the coast of Gallicia, near 

 Ferrol and Corunna ; but the fruit on them does 

 not come to maturity. There is abundance of 

 palms in the gardens of Naples; and they are 

 still finer and more numerous in that part of 

 Sicily in the neighbourhood of Palermo, which, 

 from the fertility of its soil, and the variety and 

 beauty of its productions, has the name of " the 

 golden shell." They are also to be met with in 

 some parts of the south of France, though they 

 rarely, if ever, ripen their fnait in that country. 

 There are, in particular, two very majestic spe- 

 cimens growing in the open air in the botanical 

 garden at Toulon ; but these, so far as we have 

 heard, have not yet flowered. As greenhouse 

 plants, with heat in the colder season, they have 

 been introduced into England for about a cen- 

 tury ; and the celebrated Miller, of the botanical 

 garden at Chelsea, is reported to have been the 

 first cultivator. The Messrs. Loddiges, of Hack- 

 ney, have palms of considerable height growing 

 under glass ; there are also some fine palms at 

 the botanical garden at Kew, and a great variety 

 of splendid specimens in the botanic garden of 

 Edinburgh. 



The date palm is a very slow-gi-owing tree ; 

 and even in the soil and climate that are most 

 congenial, old trees do not gain above a foot in 

 height in five years, so that, supposing the in- 

 crease uniform, the age of a tree, sixty feet high, 

 cannot be less than three hundred years. Dr 

 Shaw sajfs, that the palm of Barbary usually 

 falls about the latter end of its second century. 



The date is one of those plants which, in the 

 countries that are congenial to their growth, form 

 the principal subsistence of man ; and its locality 

 is so peculiar, that it cannot, strictly speaking, 

 be classed' either with the fruits of the temperate 

 climates or with those of the tropical. It holds 

 a certain intermediate place, and is most abun- 

 dant in regions where there are few other escu- 

 lent vegetables to be found. 



There is one district where, in consequence of 

 the extreme aridity of the soil, and the want of 

 moisture in the air, none of the cerealia will 

 2 ii 



