22 



BULLETIN 223, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



usually long, from 3 up to 4 or 5 feet, and 1| to 1J inches broad on 

 mature trees. The fruiting head, or portion bearing the strands, is 

 short, the strands numerous, often 18 to 24 inches, or occasionally 

 27 to 30 inches long, sometimes forked. The proximal naked 

 portion of the strand (one-third to one-half of the length) is sharply 

 and irregularly quadrangular in cross section, the fruiting por- 

 tion irregularly oval, with short zigzag angles. From 20 to 30 

 fruits are sometimes set on a single strand. With the growth of 



the fruit in weight, 



SVPO/r- 



the stalk curves 

 downward, till the 

 entire load often 

 hangs suspended 

 nearly vertically. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE 

 HAYANY VARIETY. 



(Birket el Haggi, Birket el 

 Hajji,i Birket el Hadji.) 



The trees of the 

 Hay any variety 

 have rather slender 

 trunks and mod- 

 erate outcurve of 

 leaves, forming a 

 broadly vase- 

 shaped top. 



The leaf bases are 

 rather coarse, 

 broadly wedge 

 shaped, narrowing 

 abruptly to a 

 wedge-shaped petiole. The rachis is of medium size, well rounded 

 dorsally, and the lateral faces rather broad, the size diminish- 

 ing gradually, but there is a decided grace and flexibility toward 



1 Several trees of this variety were received by the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction under 

 the name of "Birket el Haggi" from Mr. Em. C. Zervudachi, of Alexandria, Egypt, in 1901, and listed 

 under S. P. I. No. 7635. Upon fruiting they proved to be identical with "Hayany," S. P. I. No. 6138, 

 secured by Mr. Fairchild earlier in the same year. Hayany is the correct name of the variety, which is 

 the most numerous and most popular date of Lower Egypt. The name "Birket el Haggi" is only men- 

 tioned among Egyptian dates by Delchevalerie, who erroneously mistook the locality designation for the 

 real name of the variety. 



On the writer's visit to the Birket el Hagg district in September, 1913, he found that the people knew of 

 no date named "Birket el Haggi," but that they had thousands of "Hayany" trees, the fruit of which was 

 among the earliest to reach the Cairo and Alexandria markets, and so took the locality name, as "Chau- 

 tauqua grapes" or "Riverside oranges" do in our country. Popenoe, "Date Growing in the Old and New 

 World," adopts the form "Birket el Hajji," in conformity with classic Arabic pronunciation, though 

 "Birket el Hagg" is the correct transliteration of the name of the pool and village accepted by all Egyp- 

 tians and is on most of their maps. 



Fig. 12.— A bunch of dates of the Deglet Noor variety, showing the fruit 

 stalk, or sobata; the fruiting head, or portion on which the strands are 

 borne; and the strands, or shamrokh, comprising the clear area and the 

 fruiting area. 



