41 i 
and the moment he sounds the alarm, the 
whole Hock takes wing. This bird, when at 
rest, stands on one leg, the other being drawn 
tip close to the body, with the head placed 
tinder the wing on that side of the body it 
stands on. See Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 332.' 
They are sometimes caught young, and are 
brought up tame ; but are always impatient of 
cold; and in this state will seldom live a 
great while, gradually losing their colour, 
flesh, and appetite, and dying for want of 
that food which in a state of nature at large 
they were abundant'y supplied with. 
PIKENIX, in astronomy, one of the con- 
stellations of the southern hemisphere, un- 
known to the antients, and invisible in our 
northern parts. See Astronomy. 
Phoinix, the great palm or date-tree, a 
genus of plants belonging to the order palmar. 
The calyx is 3-parted; corolla 3-petallecl; male 
stamina three; female pist. one, drupe ovate. 
'There is only species, viz. tiie dactylifera, 
or common date-tree, a native of Africa and 
the Eastern countries, where it grows to 50, 
60, and 100 feet high. The trunk is round, 
upright, and studded with protuberances, 
which are the vestiges of the decayed leaves. 
Fiom the top issues forth a cluster of leaves 
or branches eight or nine feet long, extend- 
ing all round like an umbrella, and bending a 
little towards the earth. The bottom part 
produces a number of stalks like those of the 
middle, but seldom shooting so high as four 
or five feet. These stalks, says Adanson, 
diffuse the tree very considerably ; so that 
wherever it naturally grows iu forests, it is 
extremely difficult to open a passage through 
its prickly leaves. The date-tree was intro- 
duced into Jamaica soon after the conquest 
of the island by the Spaniards. There are, 
•however, but few of them in Jamaica at this 
time. The fruit is somewhat in the shape 
of an acorn. It is composed of a thin, light, 
and glossy membrane, somewhat pellucid 
and yellowish, which contains a tine, soft, and 
pulpy fruit, which is firm, sweet, and some- 
what vinous to the taste, esculent, and whole- 
some; and within this is enclosed a solid, 
tough, and hard kernel, of a pale grey colour 
on the outside, and finely marbled within like 
the nutmeg. The best are brought from 
Tunis: they are also very fine and good in 
Egypt, and in many parts of the East. Those 
•of Spain and France look well ; but are never 
perfectly ripe, and very subject to decay. 
Dates have always been esteemed mode- 
rately strengthening and astringent. 
Though tne date-tree grows every where 
indiscriminately on the northern coasts of 
Africe, it is not cultivated with care, except 
beyond mount Atlas.; because the heat is not 
sufficiently powerful along the coasts to bring 
the fruits to proper maturity. We shall here 
extract some observations from M. Des Fon- 
taines respecting the manner of cultivating 
it in Barbary, and on the different uses to 
which it is applied. All that part of the 
Zaara, which is near mount Atlas, and the 
only part of this vast desert which is inhabit- 
ed, produces very little corn; the soil being 
sandy, and burnt up by the sun, is almost en- 
tirely unfit for the cultivation of grain, its 
oifiv productions of that kind being a little 
baric v, maize, and sorgo. The date-tree, 
however, supplies, the deficiency of corn to 
the inhabitants of these countries, and fur- 
nishes them with almost the whole of their 
PHCENIX. 
subsistence. They have flocks 6f sheep ; 
but as they are not numerous, they preserve 
them for the sake of their wool ; besides, the 
flesh of these animals is very unwholesome 
food in countries that are excessively warm ; 
and these people, though ignorant, have pro- 
bably been enabled by experience to know 
that it was salutary for them to abstain from 
it. The date-trees are planted without any 
order, at the distance of 12 feet one from the 
other, in the neighbourhood of rivulets and 
streams, which issue from the sand. Forests 
ol them may be seen here and there, some of 
which are several leagues in circumference. 
1 he extent ot these plantations depends 
upon the quantity of water which can be 
procured to water them, for they require 
much moisture. All these forests are inter- 
mixed with orange, almond, and pomegra- 
nate trees, and with vines which twist round 
the trunks of the date-trees; and the heat is 
strong enough to ripen the fruit, though they 
are never exposed to the sun. 
It is generally in winter that new planta- 
tions of this tree are formed. For this pur- 
pose those who cultivate them take shoots of 
those which produce the best dates, and plant 
them at a small distance one from the oilier. 
At the end of three or four years, these 
shoots, il they have been properly taken care 
of, begin to bear fruit: but this fruit is as yet 
dry, without sweetness, and even without 
kernels; they never reach the highest degree 
ot perfection of which they are susceptible 
till they are about 15 or 20 years old. 
'1 hese plants are, however, produced from 
the seeds taken out of the fruit, provided 
they are fresh. They should be sown in pots 
filled with light rich earth, and plunged into 
a moderate hot-bed of tanner’s bark, which 
should be kept in a moderate temperature of 
heat, and the earth frequently refreshed with 
water. When the plants are come up to a 
proper size, they should be each planted in a 
separate small pot, filled with the same light 
earth, and plunged into a hot bed again; ob- 
serving to refresh them with water, as also to 
let them have air in proportion to the warmth 
of the season, and the bed in which they are 
placed. During the summer time they should 
remain in the same hot-bed; but in the be- 
ginning of August they should have a great 
share of air to harden them against the ap- 
proach of winter; for if they are too much 
forced, they- will be so tender as not to be 
preserved through the winter without much 
difficulty, especially if you have not the con- 
veniency of a bark-stove to keep them in. 
'1 he trees, however, which spring from 
seed, never produce so good dates as those 
that are raised from shoots, they being always 
poor and ill-tasted. It is undoubtedly by 
force ol cultivation, and after several genera- 
tions, (hat they acquire a good quality. The 
date-trees which have been originally sown 
grow rapidly, and we have been assured that 
they bear fruit in the fourth or fifth year. 
Care is taken to cut the inferior branches of 
the date-tree in proportion as they rise ; and 
a piece of the root is always left of some 
inches in length, which affords the easy means 
of climbing to the summit. These trees live 
a long time, according to the account of the 
Arabs; and in order to prove it, they say 
that when they have attained to their full 
growth, no change is observed in them for the 
space of three generations. 
The number of females which are cultivat- 
ed is much superior to that of the males, be- 
cause they are much more profitable. The 
sexual organs of the date-tree grow, as is well 
known, upon different stalks, and these trees 
flower in the months of April and May, at 
which time the Arabs cut the male branches 
to impregnate the female. For this purpose 
they make an incision in the trunk of each 
branch which they wish to produce fruit, and 
place in it a stalk of male flowers; without 
this precaution the date-tree would produce 
only abortive fruit. In some cantons the 
male branches are only shaken over the fe- 
male. '1 he practice of impregnating the 
dale-tree in this manner is very antient. 
Pliny describes it very accurately in that part 
of las work where he treats of the palm-tree. 
There is scarcely any part of the date-tree 
which is not useful. The wood, though of a 
spungy texture, lasts such a number of years, 
that the inhabitants of the country say it is in- 
corruptible. They employ it for * making 
beams and instruments of husbandry ; it burns 
slowly, but the coals which result from its 
combustion are very strong, and produce a 
great heat. 
The Arabs strip the bark and fibrous parts 
from the young date-trees, and eat the sub- 
stance, which is in the centre; it is verv 
nourishing, and lias a sweet taste : it is known 
by the name of the marrow of the date-tree. 
1 hey eat also the leaves, when they are 
young and tendet;, with lemon-ju ce; the old 
ones are laid out to dry, and are employed for 
making mats and other works of the" same 
kind, which are much used, and with which 
they carry on a considerable trade in the in- 
terior parts of the country. From the sides 
of the stumps of the branches which have 
been left, arise a great number of delicate 
filaments, of which they make ropes, and 
which might serve to fabricate cloth. 
A white liquor, known by the name of 
milk, is drawn also from the date-tree. To 
obtain it, all the branches are cut from the 
summit of one of these trees, and after se- 
veral incisions have been made in it, they are 
covered with leaves, in order that the heat 
of the sun may not dry it. The sap drops 
down into a vessel placed to receive it, at 
the bottom of a circular groove made below 
the incisions. The milk of the date-tree has 
a sweet and agreeable taste when it is new ; 
it is very refreshing, and is even given to 
sick people to drink, but it generally turns 
sour at the end of 24 hours. Old trees are 
chosen for this operation, because the cutting 
of the branches, and the large quantity of sap 
which flows from them, greatly exhaust them, 
and often cause them to decay. 
The male flowers of the date-tree are also 
useful. They are eaten when still tender, 
mixed up with a little lemon-juice. They are 
reckoned to be very provocative; the odour 
which they exhale is probably the cause of 
this property being ascribed to them. These 
date-trees are very lucrative to the inhabit- 
ants of the desert. Some of them produce 
20 bunches of dates; but care is always 
taken to lop off a part of them, that those 
which remain may become larger; 10 or 12 
bundles only are left on the most vigorous 
trees. It is reckoned that a good tree pro- 
duces, one year with another, about the 
value of 10 or 12 shillings to the -proprietor. 
A pretty considerable trade is carried on with 
