DATES OF EGYPT AND THE SUDAN, 17 
DESCRIPTION OF VARIETIES. 
AGLANY. 
Trees of the Aglany variety are tall and have slender trunks and leaves 10 to 12 
feet long, with a graceful curve at the apex. ‘The leaf bases are 7 to 9 inches broad 
and about 2 inches thick, diminishing gradually to the normal size of the rib, which 
has a Yegular taper to the rather slender apex. The dorsal surface of the rib is moder- 
ately rounded, while the ventral surface presents a sharply angled ridge. The spine 
area is about 20 per cent of the blade length; the spines are rather heavy, tapering to 
a slender acute apex, 2.5 to 9 inches or even 12 inches long, Passing to a thick ribbon 
pinna 18 to 26 inches long. The normal pinnz at 3 to 6 feet from the base of the 
blade are 22 to 27 inches long and three-fourths or seven-eighths of an inch to 14 inches 
broad. From the middle of the blade they gradually diminish in length, but are still 
18 to 21 inches long at 10 feet from the base and 13 to 16 inches long at the apex. Their 
greatest breadth, 14 to 13 inches, is at from 6 to 10 feet from the base. The pulvini are 
heavy, those on the spine and lower pinne being very heavy, but only slightly caudate, 
and there are no coalescent groups of pinne. The thickness of the pinne blades is 
about 0.017 to 0.018 of an inch. 
The antrorse pinne form about 25 per cent of the whole number on the Bade. the 
introrse and retrorse about 35 per cent each, the others being undetermined. The 
paired groups of pinnze form more than half of the entire number, the triple groups 
rank next, and there are a few quadruple groups. 
The divergence of the pinne from the rachis is rather slight, about 15° to 20° for the 
antrorse and 25° to 30° for the introrse and retrorse classes. They lie close to the 
blade plane, the outer half of the blade being broad, smooth, and nearly flat. 
The fruit! is 13 to 1} inches long, three-quarters of an inch in diameter, narrowly 
elliptical in outline; color, lemon yellow, curing to adull brown. Theskinisthin, the 
flesh three-sixteenths to one-quarter of an inch thick. These dates, when fully ripe, 
are very sweet and sirupy, but rich enough in sugar to enable them to be dried and 
packed for shipment though they are largely eaten fresh. The seeds are 1 inch long, 
five-sixteenths of an inch broad, rather oblong, with broadly rounded ends. The 
ventral furrow is deep, the germ pore being nearly central. At Salihieh, where this 
variety is chiefly grown, it is ripe about the first week of November. 
AMHAT. 
(Notes taken at Bedrashen and Abu Nemrus.) 
Trees of the Amhat variety ‘are tall (PI. III, fig. 2) and have medium-heavy trunks 
and glaucous blue leaves 104 to 134 feet long, with bases of moderate width and the 
rather stout ribs strongly rounded dorsally and decidedly arched ventrally, giving 
unusual approach to a cylindrical cross section.? The spine area is 24 to 44 feet, the 
medium-heavy spines from 2 or 3 inches long below to 8 or 9 inches in the upper ones 
and passing to stout spike pinnee 23 to 27 inches long. The succeeding normal pinnze 
are 24 to 27 inches long, decreasing but slightly till near the apex, where they drop to 
20, 17, and finally 14 inches. 
The pinne range in width from 14 to 14 inches, only a few of the apical ones dropping 
to five-eighths or three-fourths of an inch broad, and they are rather firm and stiff 
1 For the characters of the ripe fruit the writer is indebted to Mr. Thomas W. Brown, horticulturist of 
the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture. 
2 For the system of technical descriptions used in the following pages see “‘ Botanical Characters of the 
Leaves of the Date Palm Used in Distinguishing Cultivated Varieties,’? Bulletin 223, United States 
Department of Agriculture, by the writer of this bulletin. 
96613°—Bull. 271—15——3 
