DATE TREE. 
265 
duration, since, according to the Arabs, it flourishes 
for two or three hundred years. The flowers make 
their appearance in the spring, and the fruit ripens 
in the autumn. The flowers burst from sheaths, 
from ten to twenty of which may be seen on each 
date tree ; and these are cut off when the fruit has 
arrived at maturity. 
This tree belongs to a class in which the male 
and female flowers grow on different plants ; but 
the latter, being the most profitable, are chiefly cul- 
tivated. It is as singular as true, that unless the 
male plant is in the neighbourhood, the female will 
not produce ; and for the purpose of insuring a 
crop, the Arabs make an incision in the trunk of 
each branch which they wish to produce fruit, and 
place in it a stalk of male flowers. Linnaeus, who 
was well aware of this circumstance, mentions a fe- 
male date tree which flowered many years at Berlin 
without producing any seeds ; but the inhabitants 
of that place procured some of the blossoms of a 
male tree which was then growing at Leipsic, and 
thus procured fruit; which being afterwards planted 
by the celebrated professor, in his garden, sprung 
up, and were growing vigorously when he wrote 
the account. He likewise quotes Ksempfer, who 
formerly told us how necessary it was found by the 
oriental people, who live upon the produce of palm 
trees, to place some of the male plants among the 
females, if they hoped for any fruit: hence it is 
the practice of those who make war in that part of 
the world, to cut down all the male palms, that a 
