CHAP. 7.—THE NATURE OF THE PALM-TREE.
The palm-tree grows in a light and sandy soil, and for the
most part of a nitrous quality. It loves the vicinity of flowing
water; and as it is its nature to imbibe the whole of the year,
there are some who are of opinion that in a year of drought
it will receive injury from being manured even, if the manure
is not first mixed with running water: this, at least, is the idea
entertained by some of the Assyrians.
The varieties of the palm are numerous. First of all, there
are those which do not exceed the size of a shrub; they are
mostly barren, though sometimes they are known to produce
fruit; the branches are short, and the tree is well covered with
leaves all round. In many places this tree is used as a kind
of rough-cast,
1 as it were, to protect the walls of houses
against damp. The palms of greater height form whole
forests, the trunk of the tree being protected all round by
pointed leaves, which are arranged in the form of a comb;
these, it must be understood, are wild palms, though sometimes,
by some wayward fancy or other, they are known to make
their appearance among the cultivated varieties. The other
kinds are tall, round, and tapering; and being furnished with
dense and projecting knobs or circles in the bark, arranged in
regular gradation, they are found easy of ascent by the people
in the East; in order to do which, the climber fastens a loop
of osier round his body and the trunk, and by this contrivance
ascends the tree with astonishing
2 rapidity. All the foliage is
at the summit, and the fruit as well; this last being situate,
not among the leaves, as is the case with other trees, but
hanging in clusters from shoots of its own among the
branches, and partaking of the nature both of the grape and
the apple. The leaves terminate in a sharp edge, like that of
a knife, while the sides are deeply indented-a peculiarity
which first gave the idea of a troop of soldiers presenting face
on two sides at once; at the present day they are split asunder
3
to form ropes and wythes for fastening, as well as light umbrellas
4 for covering the head.
The more diligent
5 enquirers into the operations of Nature
state that all trees, or rather all plants, and other productions
of the earth, belong to either one sex or the other; a fact
which it may be sufficient to notice on the present occasion,
and one which manifests itself in no tree more than in the
palm. The male tree blossoms at the shoots; the female buds
without blossoming, the bud being very similar to an ear of
corn. In both trees the flesh of the fruit shows first, and
after that the woody part inside of it, or, in other words, the
seed: and that this is really the case, is proved by the fact, that
we often find small fruit on the same shoot without any seed in
it at all. This seed is of an oblong shape, and not rounded
like the olive-stone. It is also divided down the back by a
deep indentation, and in most specimens of this fruit there
is exactly in the middle a sort of navel, as it were, from which
the root of the tree first takes its growth.
6 In planting this
seed it is laid on its anterior surface, two being placed side
by side, while as many more are placed above; for when
planted singly, the tree that springs up is but weak and
sickly, whereas the four seeds all unite and form one strong
tree. The seed is divided from the flesh of the fruit by several
coats of a whitish colour, some of which are attached to the
body of it; it lies but loosely in the inside of the fruit, adhering only to the summit by a single thread.
7
The flesh of this fruit takes a year to ripen, though in some
places, Cyprus
8 for instance, even if it should not reach maturity, it is very agreeable, for the sweetness of its flavour:
the leaf of the tree too, in that island, is broader than elsewhere, and the fruit rounder than usual: the body of the fruit
however, is never eaten, but is always spit
9 out again, after
the juice has been extracted. In Arabia, the palm fruit is
said to have a sickly sweet taste, although Juba says that he
prefers the date found among the Arabian Scenitæ,
10 and to
which they give the name of dablan," before those of any
other country for flavour. In addition to the above particulars, it is asserted that in a forest of natural growth the
female
11 trees will become barren if they are deprived of the
males, and that many female trees may be seen surrounding a
single male with downcast heads and a foliage that seems to be
bowing caressingly towards it; while the male tree, on the
other hand, with leaves all bristling and erect, by its exhalations, and even the very sight of it and the dust
12 from
off it, fecundates the others: if the male tree, too, should
happen to be cut down, the female trees, thus reduced to a state
of widowhood, will at once become barren and unproductive.
So well, indeed, is this sexual union between them understood,
that it has been imagined even that fecundation may be ensured through the agency of man, by means of the blossoms
and the down
13 gathered from off the male trees, and, indeed,
sometimes by only sprinkling the dust from off them on the
female trees.