DATES. 



31 



year. Many of the animals likewise feed on dates the 

 greater part of the year, the oases being bare of herbage.''^ 

 Dr. James Eichardson describes, in the letter above quoted"^, 

 no less than forty-six varieties of this fruit which he found 

 cultivated in the oases of the deserts of Northern Africa. 

 The first question of the Bedouin is, What is the price of 

 dates at Mecca or Medina 



The date-palm belongs to the Linnsean Order Dioecia, 

 i.e, the stamen-flowers and pistil-flowers are on different 

 plants, consequently they require the intervention of insects,* 

 or some other means, for the conveyance of the pollen from 

 the stamens to the pistils : this is usually done by bees, but 

 occasionally this source of assistance fails, and the trees 

 remain barren. Relative to this fact, Michaux records 

 an interesting indication of the careful forethought of the 

 Persians, who, being at war at the time, and knowing the 

 facilities their enemies had for destroying pistil-bearing 

 palms, they saved a quantity of pollen in hermetically sealed 

 tubes, with which they fertilized the pistilHferous flowers. 

 After the destroyers had passed on, their perseverance was 

 rewarded with as plentiful a crop of this essential food as if 

 it had been produced in the usual manner. 



* Hooker's J ournal of Botany, vol. ii. 



