XLVII 
THE FRUITS OF PALMS 
I SN’T IT ODD that two palm trees so nearly alike as 
the date and the cocoanut yield fruits which are so 
different! 
The trees that bear these two fruits are not merely 
palms, but they are both members of the feather-palm 
branch of the palm family, as opposed to the fan-palm 
branch. As a matter of fact, there was probably a time 
when these two trees were one and the same, and the 
difference in the fruit they bear has probably come about 
because of the differences in the ways in which they have 
lived. 
The native home of the date palm is believed to have 
been along the Euphrates River in Arabia and in the 
fertile oases of the deserts thereabouts. There dates 
have grown for hundreds of thousands of years. The 
most important problem that faces any plant is carrying 
itself on to the next generation. Whatever the conditions 
are under which it lives, it must produce seeds that will 
get themselves planted and grow new generations of their 
kind, or it will die out. 
The palm, growing in the desert, found that it could 
best serve this purpose by producing small seeds and put¬ 
ting sweet meat about them. This would induce animals, 
birds, man himself to carry the fruit away and eat it. 
The seed would be thrown down and have a chance of 
taking root and growing. The date, in fact, followed the 
94 
