476 Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 



entirely justifiable. The name could then be linked to the Arabic tradition 

 given by Shaykh Jalal al Din (15th c, A. D.) in his Commentary on the 

 Koran, and elsewhere, that Job had two threshing floors, one for wheat and 

 one for barley, and that after his prosperity had been restored, God sent a 

 cloud over each of these threshing floors, raining gold pieces on one and 

 silver pieces on the other, until they were wholly covered. The fruit which 

 bears this name is a rather small, yellow, dry date of Baghdad, scarce but 

 esteemed. It ripens in midseason and the yield is said to be average. 



Zahrtyeh, ' ' Flowery " or " Brilliant, ' ' a variety mentioned by Ghanimeh, 

 but unknown to me personally. 



In addition to these. Dr. Zwemer* mentions the following as being dates 

 of the Busreh region: "Mother of Perfume," "Sealed Up," "Red Sugar," 

 "Pure Daughter," and "Daughter of Seven." I can not be certain of these 

 identifications; but "Mother of Perfume" may be Rihawi ; "Sealed Up" is 

 probably Maktum; and "Daughter of Seven" is probably the same as 

 "Father of Seven to the Cubit." 



I may add that of tlie 111 varieties of dates described in Baghdad by 

 native writers of the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries, and collected by Pere 

 Anastase Marie of the Carmelite Mi.ssion, Baghdad,! not more than fifteen 

 or twenty can be identified definitely as existing up to the present day. Some 

 of them are probably now going under other names; but no doubt most of 

 them have become extinct, as better varieties took their places. 



Male Varieties. 



The principal variety of male date palm in the Busreh region is Ghanami, 

 "Bushy Head," which gives pollen in its third year, blooms early in the 

 season, and produces from twenty to thirty spadices annually. 



Other male varieties of this region are Hukri, whose name signifies, 

 probably, "what is laid by in times of scarcity" and points to the storing 

 of pollen from year to year (although such a practice is extremely rare in 

 Babylonia), Wardi, "Long Haired", and Sumaysmi, which is probably a 

 colloquial pronunciation of Shumaysmi, "little Sunburst," in allusion to the 

 thick crown of foliage. 



At Baghdad a dozen or more varieties of males are distinguished, merely 

 by the name of the female variety of which they are originally supposed to 

 have been seedlings (although now propagated by offshoots, of course). The 

 best of these is Asharasi, which sometimes bears forty or fifty spadices, the 

 Arabs claim ; and they declare that not only is the yield of fruit heavier 

 when this variety of male is used for pollination, but that the flavor of the 

 dates is also better. It is, accordingly, the only variety planted by con- 

 noiseurs, but lacking this, Barban is preferred, with Khadhrawi in third place. 



In importing specimens of the male Asharasi to California, I endeavored 



• Zwemer, S. M., in "Arabia, the Cradle of Islam." New York, 1901. 

 + See Loghat el Arab, XI, 509, Baghdad, Mai, 1913. 



