THE DATE-TREE. 
69 
rope-like plants frequently grow to tLe incredible length 
of four or even six liimdred feet, often consisting of a 
couple of liimdretl joints two or tbree feet long, and bear- 
ing at every knot a ft^atlierj^ leaf, armed witii thorns on 
its lower surface- Though often extremely disagreeable 
to the traveller, yet they are far from being useless. The 
natives of Java and the other islands of the Eastern 
Archipelago cut the cane into fine slips, M'hich they plait 
into beautiful mats, manufacture into strong and neat 
baskets, or twist into cordage of such strength and dura- 
bility that it is even used with success in the forraation 
of bridges across the water-courses and ravines. 
On turning from the Indian Ocean to Arabia and 
Africa, we enter upon a new world of palms, several 
of which are no less valuable than the cocoa-nut or the 
palmyra. 
The date-tree, sung from time immemorial by the poets 
of the Eastj is as indispensable as the camel to the inhabi- 
tants of the wastes of North Africa and Arabia, and, next 
to the " ship of the desert," the devout Mnssulnmn esteems 
it the chief gift of Allah. Few palms have a wider range, 
for it extends from the Persian CJulf to the borders of 
the Atlantic, and flourishes from the twelftli to the 
thirty-seventh degree of northern latitude. Groves of 
dates adorn the coasts of Valencia in Spain; near Genoa 
its plantations afford leaves for tbe celebration of Palm 
Sunday ; and in the gai-dens of southern France a date- 
tree is sometimes seen growing among the oranges and 
olives. But it never bears fruit on these northern limits 
of its empire, and thrives best in the oases on the borders 
of the sandy desert. 
The date-palm is propagated by shoots, and the female 
tree bears its first fruits after four or five years. It is 
said to attain to an age of two centimes, but is rarely left 
standing longer than eighty years, when the trunk is 
tapped in spring, producing a kind of toddy, which is 
consumed in great quantities in Biledulgerid,'* or the 
