DATE TREE. 
261 
hitherto discovered. It has for many ages been 
considered by the inhabitants of Asia and Africa as 
the most useful production of the vegetable king- 
dom : its fruit provides them with food during the 
greater part of the year, and its stem, branches 
and leaves, contribute to furnish them with neces- 
saries. 
The trunk of the date tree, which grows to the 
height of thirty or forty feet, is straight, simple, 
and cylindrical ; it is thickly set on the upper part 
with scales, which are the vestiges of old leaves, 
and exist for many years after the leaves themselves 
have fallen off. The stem is terminated by an 
ample bunch of winged leaves, about nine or ten 
feet long, composed of two rows of leaflets, mostly 
alternate, and of an ensiform shape ; the inferior 
leaves are short and spiny. The outside leaves 
spread out like an umbrella, and bend a httle to- 
wards the earth ; those in the neighbourhood of 
the centre are more elevated, and from the middle 
of them there shoots up a large, conical, and suc- 
culent bud, which by the natives is esteemed a 
delicacy. The bottom part of the tree produces a 
number of stalks about four or five feet high, which 
have been noticed by Adanson, who tells us that 
they spread the tree very considerably ; so that 
wherever it naturally grows in forests, it is ex- 
tremely difficult to open a passage through its 
prickly leaves. The fruit, which is shaped like an 
acorn, is composed of a thin light and glossy mem- 
brane, somewhat pellucid and yellowish; it con- 
