DATES OF EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 27 
resemblance to their Hayany parent, along with their offshoots, have been incorporated 
under the name of Hayany and that now it would be impossible to always distinguish 
the original type from them. 
The earliest introduction of this variety into the United States was through Mr. 
David Fairchild. The shipment was from Alexandria in the spring of 1901. Two 
offshoots with this name, under S. P. I. No. 6438, were planted in the Cooperative 
Date Garden at Tempe, Ariz. Of the same shipment one tree, labeled ‘‘Dakar 
Majahel,’’ S. P. I. No. 6442, was very tardy in flowering, but finally proved to be 
Hayany or a near ennai Of a shipment of offshoots secured through Mr. Fair- 
child from Mr. Em. G. Zervudachi, in October, 1901, six trees were labeled ‘‘Birket 
el Haggi’’ and were planted at Tempe, under S. P. I. No. 7635. Three other trees of 
the same lot, from which the labels had been lost, were planted without S. P. I. 
numbers ond as soon as they fruited were identified by the writer as being the same 
as those under No. 7635. 
Studies made by the writer from 1909 to 1912 established clearly the identity of 
these ‘‘Birket el Haggi’’ trees with the trees labeled Hayany, and probably also of 
the No. 6442, though its very tardy fruiting is not characteristic of the variety. Asthe 
variety | 
has been 
a@ vigor- 
ous grow- 
er, pro- 
Witietes cine ie esp 
offshoots, and productive of a fruit 
“which, if not of the highest qual- 
ity, contains more sugar than it 
develops in Egypt, it has been 
very popular with the people of 
the Salt River Valley. It soon 
attracted rather widespread notice 
and has been more highly indorsed 
by the staff of the Arizona experi- Fic. 6.—Ouilines of the Hayany date in “rutab” (fresh) con- 
ment station as a variety likely to dition, seen inthe market of Merg, December 7, 1913; ese 
be more profitable under their con- from Alexandria, Egypt. (Natural size.) 
‘ditions than any other date tested in the Tempe Garden. All this exploiting has been 
under the name of ‘‘Birket el Haggi,’’ frequently shortened to ‘‘Birket’’ as more con- 
venientandeuphonious. Itwasnatural, then, to wish to learn not only the correct name 
of this date, butits homein Egyptand under what conditionsit grows to the best advan- 
tage. The only published reference to the ‘‘Birket el Haggi’’ as an Egyptian variety 
isin the paper by Delchevalerie,! a former gardener of the khedive, who described it as 
a very rare variety ‘ ‘sweet and sugary and of a reddish color,’’ and called it‘ ‘the earliest 
fruiting date tree in all Egypt,”’ giving fruits_from the second year of planting. 
Repeated visits by the writer to the villages of Merg and Birket el Hadji, near the 
shores of the old ‘‘Pool of the Pilgrims,’’ brought out the fact that they have no date 
variety called ‘‘Birket el Haggi,’’ but that the early-ripening Hayany reach the Cairo 
market under this local name, as we in America speak of ‘‘Chautauqua grapes’’ or 
‘Riverside oranges.’’ That in a foreign country and with a foreign tongue such a 
local designation should be mistaken for a varietal name is easily understood. 
Delchevalerie’s description of “‘ Birket el Haggi”’ is meager in details, but corresponds 
well with Hayany, though his account of Hayany in the same publication is wholly 
1 Delchevalerie,G. L’arbrenational des Egyptiens. Ledattier. Sa description, son histoire, sa culture, 
sa multiplication et son emploi dans les arts, l’industrie, 1a médecine et l’économie domestique. Jn Bul. 
Féd. Soc. Hort. Belgique, 1871, p. 170, 1872. 
