XXIX 
DATES AND THEIR NATIVE HOME 
I SN’T IT ODD that two-thirds of the date-palm trees 
of the world grow in the barren desert country of 
Arabia, where almost no other plant can survive! 
Arabia lies between the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea 
and is a mere peninsula of sand that is one of the driest 
and hottest spots in all the world. The shores of the 
Persian Gulf are believed to be the native home of the 
date. The historic Euphrates and Tigris rivers join sev¬ 
enty miles from the Gulf, forming the Shatt-el-Arab 
river, along which there is a solid forest of cultivated date 
palms two or three miles wide all the way to it's mouth. 
There are five million trees in this orchard, while there 
are but twenty-five million in all the rest of the world. 
Twenty million of the date-palm trees grow in Arabia 
alone. 
This comes about because a date tree is so constituted 
that it must have its feet in the water and its top in the 
blistering sun. These Arabian rivers, notably the Eu¬ 
phrates, furnish water that makes it easy to irrigate the 
date groves, and the dry heat provides ideal conditions for 
ripening the fruit. It is these conditions that, through 
the ages, have developed this plant of such peculiar 
habits. 
Far in the interior of Arabia there are watered spots 
where dates thrive and considerable numbers of people 
make their homes, never seen by the outside world and 
58 
