SAIDY DATE OF EGYPT. 21 
one received without a label were recognized by the writer as identical, and 
careful notes were made of the leaf and fruit characters, all of which were 
strongly marked and characteristic. 
As no such name occurred in any of the published lists of Egyptian dates, 
there was naturally considerable interest in the true identity of so conspicuous 
a variety. Consequently, on arriving in Egypt one of the writer's earliest 
excursions from Cairo was to the native village of Bedrashen (variant spell- 
ings, "Badrashen" and " Badreshein "), a prominent date growing and ship- 
ping point on the west bank of the Nile, about 10 miles above Cairo. It is the 
stopping point for excursionists to the historic site of ancient Memphis and 
Sakkara. and perhaps no spot in the Nile Valley has witnessed more of the 
glory of ancient Egypt than this. At the present time there are no more mag- 
nificent date groves to be found in Egypt than those that surround this town. 
Hauamdiyeh. and a number of other villages between Bedrashen and Gizeh. 
The soil is a rich sandy loam, capable of producing heavy crops of general 
produce, and maize is frequently grown beneath the date trees. Going out 
among the date growers and inquiring for a variety named Oga de Bedrashen. 
brought the unvarying response that they knew of no such variety. They had 
only Siwah and Amhat. a few Hamrawi, and some " balady." their name for 
dates of local origin, or seedlings. On looking over their garden the young 
trees of the Siwah had a familiar appearance, and a later visit gave time for 
the study of the leaf and fruiting characters in detail. Only one conclusion 
could be reached — the variety we had received under the name of " Oga de 
Bedrichen " 4s no other than the Siwah, the leading variety of the Bedrashen 
and Hauamdiyeh district and the chief packing date of Upper Egypt. The 
mudirieh of Gizeh has 435,000 taxed date trees, and at a rough estimate 100,000 
of them are of the Siwah variety. With the exception of a few trees that are 
being planted in Fayum, there seems to be little know 7 n of this variety out- 
side of Gizeh Province, and within that it is chiefly confined to the section 
south of Gizeh station and to a district on the west side of the valley and north 
of the pyramids. Of its origin or the date of its introduction into this dis- 
trict, nothing could be learned. The name at once suggested an introduction 
from the oasis of that name. But unlike Dongola Province, where they pre- 
serve a distinct tradition of having obtained their date varieties from the 
Sukkot country, these people have no record of the introduction of the Siwah 
into their country, and they insist that it originated there. 
The situation is further complicated by the fact that there is an exceedingly 
close resemblance between the Siwah and the Saidy, the great export date com- 
mon to the entire chain of oases of western Egypt, from Siwah at the north- 
west, to Baharieh. Farafreh, Dakhleh, and around to Khargeh. A most careful 
comparison of all the characters of trunk, leaf, and fruiting stalk fails to show 
points of constant difference between these varieties, unless it is in the thick- 
ness of the fruiting stalk, which, on the whole, seems to be lighter in weight 
in the Saidy than in the Siwah. How growing in the same soil conditions would 
affect them in this respect can only be determined by trial. The fruits are so 
closely related in character that the oasis Saidy variety, as packed and brought 
to the Nile Valley, shows no constant differences that will distinguish them 
from the Siwah of Bedrashen, though individual lots may vary considerably. 
The question again arises of how the varieties would behave if grown side by 
side in identical soil conditions. The rich soil of Bedrashen and Hauamdiyeh 
might produce somewhat different results in a variety than would be produced 
in the rather poor, sandy soils of Khargeh and Dakhleh Oases, in which the 
writer Studied the Saidy. Trees of " Saydy," S. P. I. No. 11485, fruited in 1912 
in a very sandy soil at the Mecca Date Garden in California, and were con- 
sidered by Bruce Drummond, in charge of the Indio and Mecca Date Gardens, 
to be identical with the "Oga de Bedrichen" (Siwah) of Tempe. The writer 
at first concurred in this opinion, but with a more detailed examination of the 
Mecca plants concluded that they were distinct. After seeing both varieties, 
as grown in Egypt, to still regard them as distinct, with so many points of iden- 
tity, can only be accounted for in one way. The Siwah. from its narrow dis- 
semination, is possibly the younger variety and a seedling springing from the 
Saidy, the fruit of which has found its market in the valley for many years. 
Analogy for an even closer resemblance of a seedling to its parent is found in 
James Reed's "Pioneer" seedling of the Deglet Noor. produced at Thermal. 
Calif. 
There is another point that makes it of importance that the Saidy and the 
Siwah should be tested in identical situations. The ripening of the two varie- 
