DATES OF EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 19 
The ripe fruits are 2 to 24 inches long, 1 inch to 1} inches broad, nearly oblong 
(fig. 3), sometimes a little the broadest at slightly above the middle, rounding to ai 
blunt and often oblique apex, with a short awnlike point. The color is ‘‘liver brown” 
(R. XIV) or ‘Hessian brown” (R. XIII), the skin thick, often loose from the flesh 
and thrown in coarse wrinkles. The flesh is three-eighths to five-eighths of an inch 
thick, coarse fibrous, with some stickiness, and with a zone of tough “rag” one- 
sixteenth of an inch thick next to the seed. 5 
The seeds are large and often rough and corrugated, 1} to 1} inches long, three- 
eighths of an inch broad, often poorly filled out at the base; the germ pore placed 
rather toward the base, the ventral furrow broad and shallow. The color of the seed 
is as near ‘‘Mars brown” (R. XV) as can be selected. : 
At the time of the writer’s visit to Salihieh, November 8, the bulk of this crop had 
gone out, so the date of ripening may be set at about November 1. 
This date has considerable sweetness, but the flavor is coarse and common. Its 
Jarge size and fine appearance, along with its good packing qualities, can alone account 
for the popularity of the variety. ; aac 
The production of the Amri is brought to the greatest perfection in the regions of 
Korain and Salihieh, on the sandy borderland between the delta and the desert, 
and is grown in small numbers 
under similar conditions about 
Mergand Birket el Hadji, which 
seems to be about its southern 
range. It probably ranks as the 
most important export variety of 
Egypt, though data in this regard 
are very meager. Thebest packs 
seen by the writer were in the 
regions above mentioned, where cairn : : : 
I . 3.—Outli f the Amri date from the omda’s garden 
-floored drying yards Fic. 3.—Outlines o 
the pebble-floo yee ey, Salihieh, Lower Egypt. (Natural size.) 
secured some degree. of cleanli- 
ness, and where the reflected heat insured a more nearly perfect curing of the dates 
than is obtained under other conditions. 
In the gardens of this section the dates are packed in boxes of light pine boards, 
which are cut and put together in small factories in the villages. These boxes were 
not exactly uniform in size, but hold from 40 to 50 pounds each, according to how 
closely they are packed. The most that could be learned about the market was that 
the bulk of the crop is shipped from Alexandria to points in southern Europe. - This 
date is found rather rarely in the market stalls cf Cairo. 
BARAKAWI.! 
(Sukkoti, Ibrimi, I brihimi.?) 
The leaves of the Barakawi variety are 9 to 10 feet long, with a graceful feathery 
taper. The spine area is 18 to 24 inches, the spines slender and acute, the lower ones 
weak and short, but the higher ones become 24 to 4 inches long, passing into ribbon 
1 The original name of this variety, as obtained from Sukkot by the Dongola people, is undoubtedly Bara- 
kawi, which in the Arabic of that province signifies ‘“‘blessed,” as ascertained by Mr. Thomas W. Brown, 
of Gizeh. Some of the chief men of the province, however, write the name in a form which must be trans- 
literated “ Birkawi,” adjective for the noun “birka,’”’ a pond or pool. Originating in Sukkot, offshoots of 
the variety were carried down the river to below Wadi Halfa, where they were given the name Sukkoti. 
After a shipping trade in these dates from the Ibrim region below Halfa was carried on to points down the 
river, they took the name Ibrimi, and now the Barakawi dates going to Cairo from Dongola Province are 
sold under the name Ibrimi. 
2 Popenoe, in “Date Growing in the Old and New World,” gives this variety as ‘“Ibrihimi, vulgarly 
Tbrimi, Abraham’s date,” being evidently unacquainted with the geographic origin of the name Ibrimi. 
