lessens, until, at the end of six weeks or two months, the stem is exhausted, becomes dry, and is used for 
firewood. This liquor is sweetish when first collected, and may be drunk as a mild beverage, but fermen- 
tation soon takes place, and a spirit is produced, which is distilled, and forms one of the kinds of aruk 
(arrack) or spirit of Eastern countries. Such being the importance and multiplied uses of the date-tree, it 
is not surprising that in an arid and barren country it should form so prominent a subject of allusion and 
description in the works of Arab authors, and that it should be said to have 300 names in their language. 
Many of these are however applied to different parts of the plant, as well as to these at different ages. — 
(Penny Cyclopaedia.) 
“ A single date-palm” says Professor Burnett, “will bear upwards of a hundred weight, and sometimes 
between two and three hundred weight of dates in a season ; they come into bearing at from six to ten 
years of age, and are fruitful for upwards of two hundred years. The amylaceous central part of the trunk 
is also good to eat, and the buds are esteemed a delicate vegetable. The young shoots are said to resemble 
asparagus.” 
The palm-tree, says the author of “The Vegetable World/’ is hailed by the wanderer in the 
desert with more pleasure than any other tree ; for, in addition to its shade and its fruit, wherever a 
little clump of palms contrasts their bright green with the red wilderness around, he may almost be sure 
that he shall find a fountain ready to afford him its cooling and refreshing water. When Moses and the 
Israelites arrived at Elim, they found twelve wells of water, by the side of seventy palm-trees : and Sir 
Robert Wilson says, that when the English army landed in Egypt, in 1801, to expel the French from that 
country, Sir Sidney Smith assured the troops that, wherever date-trees grew, water must be near; and so 
they found it, on digging usually within such a distance that the roots of the tree could obtain moisture 
from the fluid. 
The following lines occur in Mr. Wilson’s romantic Poem, “The Isle of Palms.” Two lovers have been 
wrecked on a desert island : 
Like fire, strange flowers around them flame, 
Sweet, harmless fire breathed from some magic urn, 
The silky gossamer that may not burn, 
Too wildly beautiful to bear a name. 
And when the Ocean sends a breeze, 
To wake the music sleeping in the trees, 
Trees scarce they seemed to be ; for many a flower, 
Radiant as dew, or ruby polished bright, 
Glances on every spray, that bending light 
Around the stem, in variegated bows. 
Appear like some awakened fountain-shower. 
That with the colour of the evening glows. 
And towering o’er these beauteous woods, 
Gigantic rocks were ever dimly seen, 
Breaking with solemn grey the tremulous green, 
And frowning far in castellated pride ; 
While, hastening to the Ocean, hoary floods 
Sent up a thin and radiant mist between, 
Softening the beauty that it could not hide. 
Lo ! higher still the stately Palm trees rise, 
Checquering the clouds with their unbending stems, 
And o’er the clouds amid the dark-blue skies, 
Lifting their rich unfading diadems. 
How calm and placidly they rest 
Upon the Heaven’s indulgent breast, 
As if their branches never breeze had known ! 
Light bathes them aye in glancing showers, 
And silence mid their lofty bowers 
Sits on her moveless throne. 
Entranced there the lovers gaze, 
Till every human fear decays, 
And bliss steals slowly through their quiet souls 
Though ever lost to human kind 
And all they love, they are resign’d : 
While with a scarce-heard murmur rolls. 
Like the waves that break along the shore, 
The sound of the world they must see no more. 
List ! Mary is the first to speak, 
Her tender voice still tenderer in her bliss ; 
And breathing o’er her silent husband’s cheek. 
As from an infant’s lip, a timid kiss, 
Whose touch at once all lingering sorrow calms. 
Says, God to us in love hath given 
“ A home on earth, most like to Heaven, 
“ Our own sweet Isle of Palms-” 
