32 POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



The date-palm is a magnificent plant, throwing up its stem 

 to the height of fifty feet and upwards. Prom the summit 

 of this stem the leaves spread out in the most elegant tuft ; 

 they are pinnated, or have a row of pointed leaflets on each 

 side of the immense leaf-stalk, which is often as much as five 

 feet in length. The graceful elegance of the Eastern groves 

 of palm-trees cannot be better described than in the exqui- 

 site language of the poet Moore — 



" Those groups of lovely date-trees, bending 

 Languidly their leaf-crown'd heads, 

 Like youthful maids, when sleep descending 

 Warns them to their silken beds." 



The flowers are at first enclosed in a floral envelope called 

 a spathe, or perianth. They push out from between the 

 leaves, and, when fully developed, form large branched 

 bunches, upon which the fruit is borne; the fresh fruit, if 

 fully ripe, is called ruteb. In this state it will not keep 

 long : in order to be able to transport the fruit to distant 

 countries, it must be gathered when not quite ripe, and 

 dried in the sun. Besides the fruit, the heart of the tuft 

 of leaves, usually called the Palm-cabbage, is much esteemed 

 as a vegetable ; but the tree dies when this is cut off. Erom 

 the wound thus made by the removal of the cabbage, an 



