110 DATE GROWING 



Experience has shown that this is not always the 

 case, however, and a number of failures, where no 

 fruit has been set, have been traced to the fact that 

 the individual blossoms of the female remained 

 tightly closed for several days after the spathe had 

 opened, thus giving the pollen no chance to enter 

 when it was shaken over the cluster. If any palm 

 shows a disposition to set no fruit — and usually a 

 palm with this tendency shows it each year — the 

 operator should examine the female flowers under a 

 low power microscope, to see whether they are opened 

 or closed. If opened, a minute sticky substance, 

 looking like a drop of dew, will be seen waiting to 

 receive and fix the pollen : until this is apparent, it is a 

 waste of time to pollinate the cluster. 



The difference between male and female flowers 

 is marked, and when once it has been pointed out, 

 no one can ever confuse them; but as it is of vital 

 importance to every grower, and offers the only 

 certain means of distinguishing the two sexes, I 

 quote Milne's careful statement* at length: 



"In spring a number of structures, at first greenish 

 and later brown, and measuring four to six inches 

 across and a foot or more in length, make their 

 appearance at the bases of the leaves which crown 

 the palm. These structures are called spathes and 

 each spathe incloses a cluster of flowers. When the 

 spathe has become brown in color and has attained 

 something like the size mentioned above, it splits 

 open and exposes the cluster of flowers which it 

 contains. Each flower consists of a central stem with a 

 hundred or more branches radiating from it near its 

 end and somewhat after the fashion of the hairs of a 

 *Milne, D. " Date Cultivation in the Panjab," p. 12. Lahore, 191 1 . 



