262 PLANTS. 
are ufcd in. Turkey onjournies, and in their houles. 
In Egypt they make fly-flaps of them, convenient 
enough to drive away the numerous infefts which 
incommode a man in this country : I have tike- 
wife feen bruflies made of them, with which 
they clean their foffas and cloaths. The hard 
boughs they ufe for fences round their gardens, and 
cages, to keep their fowls in, with which they carry 
on°a great traffic : they alfo ufe the boughs for fe- 
deral other things in huflbandry, inftead of other 
wood, which they are deftitute of. The trunk or 
ftera is fplit, andufed for the fame purpofes as the 
branches : they even ufe it for beams to build 
houfes, as they are ftrong enough for fmall build- 
ings : it is likewife ufed for firing, when there is 
want of better. The wood is foft and fpungy, but 
burns well. They lay a whole tree acrofs their 
cifterns, on which they wind the rope when they 
draw the water. The integumentum (covering) 
which covers the tree between the boughs, en- 
tirely refembles a web, and has threads, which tun 
perpendicularly and horizontally over one another : 
it is of confiderable ufe in Egypt, for of it the/ 
make all the ropes which they ufe at their ciflern s > 
&c. They have alfo rigging of the fame kind J^ 1 
their fmaller veffels ; it is pretty ftrong and laftn^ 
They reckon in Egypt, that palm-trees afford ' 
their owners a fcquin annually of profit for ead 
tree. It is common to fee two, three, to four In' 11 ' 
dred fruit-bearing Date-trees all belonging to on® 
family, and one may fometimes fee three to f° u ' 
thoufand in the poffeflion of one man, which, at 1 
above rate, bring in a confiderable revenue to tn 
owner, for the little fpot of ground they occupr 
A full grown Date-tree does not, at moft, take^ yg 
2 
