1, Cluster of dates ; 2, flower ; 3, a date ; 4, section of the same.
PALM-TREE
602
PALM-TREE
yearly proiluced in numerous clusters and in the utmost abiiniiancp, is its cliief value ; for whole tribes of Arabs anil Africans tind their chief sustenance in the date, of which even the stony seeds, being ground down, yield nourishment to the camel of the desert.
A\'itli an imagination and a vocabulary equally co- pious, the Arabs are said to have three hundred and sixty names or epithets for the palm-tree, and to be able to enumerate three hundred and sixty uses to which different portions are api)lied. Certainly it would be dirticult to name a more serviceable tree. Not only is its fruit a daily article of diet, but various prepara- tions from it are used as medicines and tonics. "On the abortive fruit and ground date-stones the camels are fed. From the leaves they make couches, bas- kets, bags, mats, brushes, and tiy-traps; from the trunk cages for their poultry and fences for their gardens; and other parts of the tree furnish fuel. From the fibrous webs at the bases of the leaves thread is pro- cured, which is twisted into ropes and rigging; and from the sap, which is collected by cutting off the head of the palm, and scooping out a hollow in its stem, a spirituous liquor is prepared" (Burnett, Outlines of Bot- any, p. 400). No woniler that to the present day in the proverbs and the poetry of the East the palm is con- stantly reappearing. Says Mohammed, " Honor j-our maternal aunt, the date-palm ; for she was created in paradise, of the same earth from which Adam was made." In the same spirit we are told by a later Mos- lem tradition, "Adam was permitted to bring with him out of paradise three things — the myrtle, wliich is the chief of sweet-scented flowers in the world ; an ear of wheat, the chief of all kinds of food; and dates, the chief of all the fruits of the world." These dates were conveyed to the Hejaz, where they grew up, and be- came the progenitors of all the other date-palms in Asia, Africa, and Europe ; and it is the decree of Allah that all the countries where thev grow shall belong to the faithful! (see Quarterly Reviein, cxiv, 214). The later Hebrews have a proverb, alluding to the mixture of evil with the best possessions, " In two cabs of dates there is a cab of stones and more;" and referring to the usefulness of little things, the Arabs say, "A small date- stone props up the water-jar." In their own ironical fashion, when the modern Egyptians would describe a great boaster, they say, " He paid a derhem for some dates, and now he has his palm-trees in the village." For the greater part the date-trees belong to ancient families, and to possess them is a sign of wealth and high lineage; but this magniloquent fellow passes off his sorry purchase as the fruit of his own plantation. Beyond its substantial uses, the palm is endeared b\' many bright and sacred associations. Its erect and columnar trunk, so regularly notched and indented, sup- plied to Solomon a chief means of ornamentation in the construction of the Temple (1 Kings vi, 29, 32, 35; vii, 36), and copies in brick of palm-tree logs survive in the rude architecture of Chaldrea (see Loftus, Chaldwa and Susiana. p. 175). The branch or pinnated leaf — the mid-rib with its taper, sharp-pointed leaflets, alternate- ly diverging, and forming a lung and glossy plume of polished verdure— is itself a gracofnl object, and was doubly welcome, as its far-seen signal announced to the desert-ranger a halting-place, with food and cool shadow overhead, and wells of water underneath.
II. Locality. — The family of palms is characteristic of tropical countries, and l)ut few of them extend into northern latitmies. In the Old World the species Phanix dactyllfera is that foinid farthest north. It spreads along the course of the Euphrates and Tigris across to PalmjTa and the Syrian coast of tiie Mediter- ranean. It has been introduced into the south of Spain, and thrives well at jMalaga; and is also culti- vated at Bordaghiere, in the south of France, chicflv on account of its leaves, which arc sold at two periods of the year — in spring for Palm-Sunday, and again at the Jewish Passover. In the south of Italy and Sicily,
lady Calcott states that "near Genoa there is a narrow, warm, sandy valley full of palms, but they are diminu- tive in growth, and unfruitful." Anciently the date- palm grew very abundantly (more abundantly than now) in many parts of the Levant. On this subject generally it is enough to refer to Kilter's monograph (" Ueber die geographische Verbreitung der Dattel- lialme") in his Erdkunde, and also published separately. See also Kempfer, A inanitates Exotica, and Celsius, Hi- erobot. i, 444-579; Moody, The Palm-tree (Lond. ISGO). While this tree was abundant generally in the Levant, it was regarded by the ancients as pecidiarly character- istic of Palestine and the neighboring regions (Evpla, oTTOii (pohnKiQ 01 Kap7ro(p6poi, Xenoph. Cyrop. vi, 2, § 22 ; " Judiva inclyta est palmis," Pliny, Xat. /list, xiii, 4; "Palmetis [JudneisJ proceritas et decor," Tacit. JJist. V, 6; comp. Strabo, xvii, 800, 818; Theophrast. IJisf. Plant, ii, 8 ; Pausan. ix, 19, § 5). It is curious that this tree, once so abundant in Jud^a, is now comparatively rare, except in the Philistine plain, and in the old Phoe- nicia (so named from it) about Beirut. Old trunks are washed up in tlie Dead Sea. It is abundant in Egypt, and is occasionally found near springs in the Desert. It nowhere flourishes without a perennial supply of fresh water at the root. The well-known coin of Ves- pasian representing the palm-tree with the legend " Judrea capta" is figured in vol. vi, p. 486.