DATES OF EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 35 
In December the retail price of the Siwah in the native markets of Cairo was 1 
piaster per rotl, while at the same time in the best fruit and provision stores, patron- 
ized by European customers, there was an active trade in the Algerian Deglet Noor, 
in fancy packages labeled ‘‘Dattes Muscades,”’ at prices the equivalent of 5 piasters 
per rotl. From samples of Siwah dates obtained from private sources, carefully 
selected and packed for home use, the writer is convinced that the first quality of 
dates, packed in a modern and attractive way, would be competitors with the Alge- 
rian dates on at least an equal footing and would be the choice of many people of 
refined taste. Of course, not all of the Siwah crop could be converted into a first- 
class pack under the best of conditions, but a sufficiently large proportion, with 
proper methods, could be brought up to the first quality to make the difference in 
price between 1 piaster and 5 piasters per rot] run into a good many thousand pounds 
sterling for a year’s output. What the French in Algeria and Tunis have done to 
improve the date output of those countries, what is recently being done with the 
dates of the Persian Gulf region, ought not to be beyond accomplishment for Egypt 
with such dates as the Siwah and the Saidy for a foundation. 
A question of nomenclature comes in here which is rather typical of the whole 
date situation in Egypt, and arises from the habit of the people of giving to a date 
the name of the locality from which it is brought, as ‘‘Wahi” for any date from ue 
oases, ‘‘Yemeny”’ for dates from the Yemen district of Arabia, etc. 
In the shipment of date offshoots received by Mr. Fairchild in 1901, through Mr. 
Em. ©. Zervudachi, of Alexandria, one lot, given the 8. P. I. No. 7632, was labeled 
““Ooa de Bedrichen”’ and in some of the lists this name became transformed into 
-“Ooa de Bedreschen.’”’ Two trees under the above number and one received with- 
out 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 spellings, ‘‘Badrashen”’ and ‘‘ Badre- 
shein”’), a prominent date growing and shipping 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 magnificent 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 (Pl. IIT, fig.2). 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 gardens 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”’ is 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 known of this 
variety outside 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 district, nothing 
could be learned. The name at once suggested an introduction from the oasis of that 
