Parry' s Lotus Tree. 65 



or served as desserts like dates and figs; in short, one way or an- 

 other they are eatable and mostly excellent. It would be sale 

 to say that lour hundred to five hundred trees to the acre — of 

 almost any soil — could be planted, that at two or three years old 

 would yield five to ten pounds to each bush. With any market 

 at ah, the fresh fruit would be cheap at a dime a pound for jelly- 

 ing in the rural way; they would thrive well with less care than a 

 common corn patch; would double, quadruple and quintriple in 

 four or five years at the furtherest, and thence onward for ages, 

 would pay better than strawberries, with half the labor and not a 

 tithe of the trouble in harvesting, nor risk of loss; would even 

 utilize the worst land; have the world for a market, ol the dried 

 fruit and jelly, with other uses to be noted further on. 



Classic Lote Tree (Zizyphus lotus). This is a small tree 

 common to Persia, Africa, Sicily and Spain, and is now culti- 

 vated in all regions of the olive, the vine and the fig. Tunis was 

 the ancient land of the renowned people known as Lotophagi. 

 This sweet truit is of the size of sloes, with large stone, and is 

 borne on every part of the plant like gooseberries, purple-tinged; 

 the farinaceous pulp — separated from the pits and sun-dried — is 

 set aside for winter use; has the flavor of dates and figs. A 

 kind of wine or beer drink is made by expression, diluted with 

 a little water, but will keep only a few days; doubtless immoder- 

 ately used in this or some similar way may have led to a devoted 

 dissipation akin to the poet's conception. 



It should be observed, in a general way, that this and all the 

 species are eminently adapted to the borders of deserts — delight 

 in arid sands, gravelly ravine sides and rocky ridges — would 

 preserve embankments and prevent fearful washouts without 

 serious obstruction to railroads or casting a length of blighting 

 shadows; but they will grow in any soil. Fruit described as of 

 delicious taste in the fresh state; also, after exposure to the sun 

 a few days, they are pounded and made into bread. These 

 paste-cakes are only sun-dried so as to well evaporate the little 

 moisture used in making; it resembles, both in color and taste, 

 what we designate as 'gingerbread,' and is noted as excellent 

 food for long journeys. 



From the thorny nature of the Loti, one might well wonder 

 how the fruit could be collected with facility, but as it is neither 

 tender not watery, and somewhat farinaceous and leathery-like and 

 the shrub hardiest of the hardy with tough and elastic twigs, a 

 cloth is spread on the ground and the bush beaten with a stick. 



This Lotos of the Lotophagi must not be confounded with the 

 Egyptian lotos (Nymphea lotus), nor with the lotos of Ho- 

 mer and Dioscorides, which is a species of (amatory?) Trifolium, 

 inciting, if not causing, a similar infatuation, as the one eaten by 

 the natives of the Pacific in their season; nor with the lotos of 

 Hippocrates (Celtis Australis), nor with the Italian lotos 

 (Diospyrus lotois). 



Common jujube (Z. vulgaris). — This is a small tree, oftwen- 



