ample superfluity to sell, or barter for the goods of the East or of the West. If the bark is excoriated, a fluid little less sweet than honey exudes from it, and the lymph flowing from the wounded leaf produces a wholesome wine. Pliny says that the ancient Orientals boasted of three hundred and sixty uses to which the Palm tree and its products were applied. It would be too curious to examine into the whole of these, but not uninstructive to consider the principal purposes to which the Date Palm was applied. The fruit of the Date Palm is the first and most important of its products. Each tree yields, according to Dr. Shaw, from three to four hundred pounds' weight of dates every year, from the time it has reached the age of thirty years, until it counts a century, after which period it falls off in fertility. Whether fresh or dry, there is no fruit more nutritious than the date, and certainly none on which so many depend for the greater part of their sustenance. The stones, hard and dry as they may appear, are ground into a kind of coarse meal, on which the goats and camels of the Arabs feed with greediness; and, in the longest march across the Desert, neither man nor beast require other food, if they have a little water or camel's milk to allay their thirst. BUNCH OF DATES. The great midrib of the leaf of the Palm serves not only the wandering Arabs to enclose their flocks when encamped, but the Fellah or Egyptian husband man to prop the walls of his hut, to fence in his fields, and when decayed to maintain his household fire. Sometimes the soft winged part of the leaves being left on the midrib, they are woven into a neat and comfortable lining to the hut: the same soft part is converted into mats, baskets, pouches, beds, nets, cages for poultry, and more domestic articles than I can The fibrous network surrounding the bottom of the fruit and flower sheaths is twisted into excellent cordage, and is not unfrequently woven into bags fit for packing goods; finally, the poor Egyptian thatches his hut with Palm leaves; and such of them as die naturally, from the neglect of the farmers of the land, serve for excellent fuel. name. The trunk of the Palm is very durable, and makes excellent water-pipes; because it resists the attacks of the insects of a warm climate, even those of the white ant. It is hard to work, and boasts of no beauty; but in Egypt, where timber is scarce, the Fellahs make their doors of it. I have already mentioned the sugar or honey drawn from the trunk of the Palm, and the wine or strong drink obtained from the cut foot-stalks of the leaves; but there is, according to Kæmpfer, another kind of wine, obtained by pressing the fruit, which. finds a good market from the traders of the caravans. Although, as I have stated above, the Date Palm is at perfection at the age of a century, still, in favourable situations, it continues in health for fifty years more. It is increased chiefly from suckers, which spring freely from the parent root; and, wherever an ancient Palm has died or has been accidentally burnt down, two or three young trees spring up near the spot. Hence, probably, its name Phoenix, in allusion to the fabulous Arabian bird. * The Palms differ from every tree of the forest in this, that from their seedling state to old age they never increase in bulk, but raise their columnar forms without branch, or bend, or contortion. Upward they grow, shooting their young foliage from within, as annually the withered fronds beneath decay, leaving but the traces of their being, in circles or reticular marks on the external surface in many species; while in the Date Palm the stools of the decayed leaves form projections, which serve as steps * Phoenicia is said to have been so named from the multitude of its Phoenices, or Date Palms. Excepting the Doom, or many-headed Palm. |