DATE, FAX PALM. 



365 



culture we know not, but, at all events, it deserves the attention of the 

 horticulturist. 



Of the other palms ^vhich are of important utility to man, we may 

 mention the date {Phoenix dactylifera), the fiiiit of which is served up 

 in our desserts ; but its principal use is in affording the chief portion 

 of food to the inhabitants of Arabia and part of Persia. The date 

 has been cultivated and used as a nutritious food from the earhest 

 ages, and there is no part of the tree but is turned to some useful 

 account. 



The gi'eat fan palm, ConjpTia umhracidifera, is one of the most noble 

 of the class. It attains a great height, and from the top produces 

 leaves in the shape of an immense fan, twent\- feet long and fifteen 

 wide. A production of such magnitude and durabihty could not fail 

 to claim the attention of the natives in the earhest ages, and hence 

 we find the leaves of this palm employed in covering houses, and, 

 according to Knox, in his History of Ceylon, these leaves, being cut 

 into triangular pieces, are used by the natives as a protection from the 

 rain and sun. AYhen they travel, they lay these pieces upon their 

 heads, with the narrow end foremost, the more readily to make their 

 way through the tliickets. Soldiers also cany them, not only to shade 

 them fi'om the sun, and to keep them dry in case of rain on their 

 march, but to make their tents to he under." As a fruit-bearing 

 tree, the same historian says, It bears no fruit until the last year 

 of its life ; and then yeUow blossoms, most lovely to behold, but 

 smehing very strongly, come out on the top, and spread abroad amongst 

 the branches ; these come to a fruit, round and very hard, as big as our 

 largest cherries, in such abundance, that one tree will yield seed enough 

 for a country, but not good enough to eat." 



The leaves are used for writing upon, and books formed of them are 

 sold to Europeans for the Egyptian pap^Tus. 



The leaves of Licuala spinosa are used in the isle of Celebes, and in 

 ^Macassar, for making tobacco pipes ; and the wood of Thrinax pan-iflora 

 in Jamaica for piles in wharfs and buildings made in the sea, as they are 

 durable, and the worms do not attack them. 



In most countries where the palms grow, their leaves are almost 

 universally used for thatch, forming a durable covering, and one which is 

 capable of throwing off the water. 



