VARIETIES. 21 



DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF THE REGION. 



There are hundred- of varieties of date- in the Persian Gulf region, 

 nearly every seedling being mure or less different from its neighbor; 

 but those which have been propagated by -ackers and are more or less 

 commonly known by the shippers number only about twenty or thirty. 

 It would be foreign to the purpose of this paper to list all of these 

 date-, although the time may come when it will be worth while to 

 examine them all and to station an expert in the region during the 

 fruiting season to search for superlative seedling sorts, or even with 

 the hope of rinding among the thousands of seedling trees a single one 

 which bear- a seedless fruit of fine quality . Seedless varieties which 

 art- not the result of imperfect fertilization are believed to exist. 

 Mr. Sayegh showed the writer, in fact, on hi- own plantation, a -ingle 

 tree, unfortunately without suckers, which he -ays ha- regularly pro- 

 duced, even when properly pollinated, seedless elate- of fair quality, 

 though ripening late in the season. 



The dato- which are exported to the various European and American 

 market- are not the most delicious varieties grown in Arabia and Per- 

 -ia. but simply good packing and shipping kinds. Different market- 

 demand different varieties, ami the principal market kind- for Europe 

 and America are the "Halawi." " Khadrawi," and "Saver" of Bas- 

 sorah, the "Kur-i" of Bagdad, and the "Fard" of Maskat. Indian 

 and oriental market- call for quite different sorts from those known 

 in America, generally of the dry and boiled class, and such kind- as 

 the --Zehedi."* "Brehm," "Chupchap," and "Mubsli" are exported 

 to Bombay and Singapore, while for general home consumption the 

 "Zehedi," of Bassorah and Bagdad, the "Gardiwahl" and "Murda- 

 sing." of Minab, and the "Batna" kind- grown along the coast of that 

 name on the Gulf of Oman, are the commonest. A-ide from these 

 date-, which are good shippers, there are a large number of kind- 

 whieh are highly prized for eating fresh from the tree — "rattab"" ci- 

 ther are called in Arabic. The best of these arc likely to prove of 

 special interest to the date grower- of America, where easy access t<» 

 large cities will make the creation of a market for fresh table dates a 

 possibility. Unfortunately, the notes secured on the comparative excel- 

 lence of these different rattab varieties had to be taken second hand. 

 as the visit of the writer to the Persian Gulf was made in March and the 

 date- in this locality ripen from June to October. There are. further, 

 no European- in the region whose interest in th* j -.' fresh varieties has 

 prompted them to make a study of their qualities. In the spelling of 

 the different name-, even, much variation exists, a- it i- often difficult 

 to rind the equivalent letter fur an Arabic sound and all word- are 

 -pelled phonetically. There i- considerable variation in the Arabic 

 pronunciation a- well. The continental value of the vowel- has been 



