30 POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



Dates. — The fruit of the Date Palm, Phoenix dactyli- 

 fera. (Nat. Ord. Palmacea'.) (Plate IX. fig. 47.) 



This is one of those vegetable products which are of far 

 greater importance in the countries where they are produced 

 than in our own. The date is not a favourite fruit in Eng- 

 land, although it is difficult to explain the reason why, for 

 it has many excellencies : to many, the flavour is very 

 agreeable, and very few fruits possess such highly nutritive 

 qualities. Dates come to us from Barbary and Egypt, and 

 are usually of the variety termed Tafilat; we however oc- 

 casionally receive a few from Egypt of the variety called 

 White Dates, which are smaller, being not much larger than 

 an acorn, and nearly as smooth. The colour is a dull yel- 

 lowish-white ; the former variety is of a dark reddish-brown 

 colour, more than twice as large as the white one ; its sur- 

 face is wrinkled and covered with a moist saccharine exu- 

 dation. 



Dr. James Richardson, in writing upon the dates of 

 Eezzan, says, " When every other species of food fails, the 

 date-palm yields, with the returning year, its nourishing and 

 powerful fruit, and saves the population of the desert from 

 perishing of hunger. Nineteen-twentieths of the popu- 

 lation of Eezzan live on dates during nine months of the 



