56 

 sutxilate, anthers erect, dorsified ; pistillate, minute or 0. 

 Pemale flowers gloliose, calyx of the male, accrescent ; petals 

 rounded, imbricate ; staininate 6, or 6-toothed cup ; carpels 

 3, free, stigmas sessile, uncinate ; ovules erect. Pruit 

 olalong, terete, l-seeded, stigma terminal, pericarp fleshy, 

 endocarp membranous , seed oblong, vent rally grooved ; albumen 

 equable or subruminate, embryo dorsal or siibbasilar. Species 

 10 or 11, African and Asiatic, 



Cultivated throughout the plains of India and Burma, 

 Wild in the Indus basin. 



Trunk 25-40 ft,, clothed with the persistent bases of 

 petioles. Leaves 10-15 ft,, quite glabrous ; spat?ie 12-15 

 in,, sci«'fy, petiole short ; spadices erect, fruiting, inclined 

 with spreading branches ; branches of male filiforEj ; male fi, 

 1/2 to 1/3 in, long. Fruiting peduncle short, 6 in, or more, 

 Fruit orange yellow, seed rounded at both ends, pale brown. 

 Very near P, dactylifera of Africa, the true Date, and possibly 

 the original of that plant. 



Origin of P, Dactj'-lifera, Western Asia and Africa, from 

 the Euphrates to the Canaries, cultivated for more than four 

 thousand years. 

 Culture and Use 



The ground chosen for date cultivation is the higher 

 ground, that which is too high for rice to grow well, and the 

 rent paid for such ground is at least three times that for 

 rice land. High and low land, are. however equally suitable 

 for date cultivation. In fact, date trees should be grown in 



