CHAPTER VII 



POLLINATION 



Since the dawn of history, artificial pollination 

 of the female date palm has been practiced in com- 

 munities where its culture was commercially 

 important. Bas-reliefs on the Assyrian monuments 

 plainly show the operation. Herodotus,* who wrote 

 about 450 B. C, gives the first description of the 

 operation, which he saw at Babylon, but he confounds 

 it with the caprification of the fig. Theophrastusf 

 corrected him, and describes the operation clearly and 

 correctly; Pliny, J however, seems to have been a 

 little hazy as to the principle involved. 



The medieval Arab authorities understood arti- 

 ficial pollination, but their lack of practical experience 

 is shown in the dubious way with which they approach 

 the subject. Abu-1 Khayr says, " The palm fecundated 

 by the male at the time it blossoms will produce dates 

 that are soft and juicy" — a proposition that is rather 

 obvious to most date growers; and Ibn Awam, 

 quoting this, adds, "I fecundated a wild palm in Al 

 Sharaf at the time of opening the flowers, with those 

 of a male introduced and tied to it, and dates of a 

 good quality were produced; which operation is done 

 only once a year, but it is necessary to repeat it each 

 year as for figs." It must be borne in mind that these 

 men lived in a seedling date region where there were 



♦History, Book I, ch. 193. 



fHistoria Plantarum, ed. 'V^'imme^, vol. II, p. 6. 



tHistoria Naturalis, Book XIII, ch 7. 



