PLANTS. 261 
once had tafted it, I could fcarcely refrain from 
eating ; and if I had thought the frefh fruit whole- 
fome, I fhould certainly have eaten a great deal of 
it : tho’ the receptaeulum is flefhy enough, yet but 
little of it is good, the infeft having eat much of it, 
and often made its furrows to the outward ikin. This 
tree grows in the plains and fields of Lower Egypt, 
Where I have feen it very common. It buds in the 
latter end of March, and the fruit ripens in the be- 
ginning of June ; it is wounded or cut by the inha- 
bitants at the time it buds, for without this precau- 
tion, as they fay, it will not bear fruit. 
49. Phoenix daftylifera h . The Date-tree. 
This palm is of great ufe to the inhabitants of the 
Eaft, &e. The fruit or Dates are commonly eaten, 
hi Upper Egypt many families fublift aim oft en- 
tirely on Dates ; in Lower Egypt they don’t eat fo 
many, rather chufing to fell them. The inhabitants 
here yearly fell a coniiderable quantity, which are 
chiefly carried to the towns in Turkey ; for which 
rcafon we fee Dates expofed to fale in every town. 
The Egyptians make a conferve of the frelh Dates, 
mixing them with fugar ; this has an agreeable talte. 
the ftones or kernels of the Dates are hard as 
horn, and nobody would imagine that any animal 
c °uld eat them. But the Egyptians break them, 
Srin’d them on their hand mills, and, for want of 
better food, give them to their camels, which eat 
’■hem. In Barbary they turn handfome beads for 
Pmernoflers, of thel'e ftones. Of the leaves they 
”mke balkets, or rather a kind of fhort bags, which 
k bin. Sp. PI. P. 1658. N. 1. 
are 
