18 BULLETIN 1457, U. S, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The Hayany is one of the 30 varieties listed in 1871 by Delche- 
valerie (o), who also mentions Amhat, u Semany," and " Bent A'ych " 
(modern Bint Aischa), all popular varieties for the rutab trade 
to-day. Probably these are all seedlings of the region. Delchevalerie 
gives fifth in his list of 30 Egyptian varieties " Balah Hayany," 
about which he probably knew nothing, because he states that u these 
dates derive their name from their village in Upper Egypt " and 
affirms that they are highly esteemed in that country and that they 
are made into " a kind of paste," probably " agua." 
INTRODUCTION INTO THE UNITED STATES 
Delchevalerie's No. 30, however, is " Balah Birket el Haggi," or 
the date from the ww Pool of the Pilgrims," and it was under this 
name that the Hayany variety was introduced into Arizona in 1901, 
under S. P. I. jS t o."7635, through Mr. Fairchild, of the United States 
Department of Agriculture (21). 
It appears that introductions under S. P. I. Nos. 6438 and 7635 
were of the normal type of Hayany, though the name " Birket el 
Haggi " given it by Delchevalerie was somehow picked up by the 
Greek merchant Zervudachi and persisted in Arizona for a number 
of years, until the final clearing up of the matter in Department 
Bulletin No. 271, wherein the writer (12) gives an account of the 
early introduction of the Hayany variety in Arizona, of which the 
following is an adaptation : 
The earliest introduction of this variety into the United States was through 
David Fairchild. The shipment was from Alexandria, Egypt, in the spring of 
19.01. 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 flower- 
ing, but finally proved to be Hayany or a near equivalent. Of a shipment 
of offshoots secured through Mr. Fairchild from Mr. 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 and as soon as 
they fruited were identified 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. The variety has been a vigorous grower, prolific in offshoots and 
productive of a fruit which, if not of the highest quality, 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 experiment station as 
a variety likely to be more profitable under their conditions 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- 
venient and euphonious. It was natural, then, to wish to learn not only the 
correct name of this date, but its home in Egypt and under what conditions 
it grows to the best advantage. The only published reference to the " Birket 
el Haggi" as an Egyptian variety is in the paper by Delchevalerie (5), 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 El Marg and Birket el Haggi. 
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 dates 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 
