The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1895-05-29

the still air to the height OF fifty or sixty
feet, its graceful spreading crown of glisten
ing feathery leaves, and the cluster of
golden ripe dates hanging underneath this
dark green coronal, combine to beStow
upon the date palm tree beauty quite its
own, and unequaled by any other large
plant, unless perhaps by the cocoa, the tall
pot, or some other species of the palm it
self Remark, too, that this kindly and
graceful piece of foliage grows quite alone
red and angry sands of the desert, intoler-
able to man but for its shade and shelter;
that wherever the thirsty traveller sees its
green fringes skirting the bronzed horizon
there at the roots of the everbenefcient
palm tree he knows he shall find some cool
fountain or sparkling rill; and that apart
from its gift to man, the palm tree may
claim far closer kinship with him than
any other of the plants, as likewise it has
been more entirely domestiCated than any
other tree. For the palm tree is not only
diocious, but, like some of the domestic
animals will not fructify itself without the
assistance of man.
In every plantation of cultivated dates,
one of the labors Of the cultivator consists
in collecting the flowers Of the male date,
climbing to the top Of the female with
them, and dispensing the pollen on the
| 0f tho 60t0 % Aio1 SC
operation, that although the male and fe
male trees are growing in the same planta-
ton, the crop fails if it be not performed.
Linnaus mentions date tree in a noble
mans garden, which had never fruited,
though blooming profusedly every year,
until branch of another date tree had
been brought to it from distance of many
hundred miles. Besides this trait, the
palm tree is like man, or rather as the
Arabs hold, emblematic Of him, in several
other respects. Different from other trees
if its head be cut off it dies Immediately;
and, if branch be Topped off, another does
not grow in its place. 1t has mystic inter-
course with the elements, also, the Arabs
contend. On calm day its limbs and
| feathery leaves can be seen to have pecul-
| lar and mysterious motion of their own,
| the presage. if rightly studied, of things
present and to come; and in this palm lore
our father Abraham was the first and skill
fullest master, and Solomon ben David his
worthy successor.
Thus important to the human economy,
thus distinctly Marked and thus predomi-
mating over at least two of the great centres
of ancient civilization-Assyria and Egypt,
for the date palm is frequent from the At
lantic to the Tigris-it was to be expected
that this benefcent and venerable tree
would early and largely associate itself with
the cultus and symbolism of these people
and their successors. Nearly all the
| Ethnic myths seem to have had mysteri-
Gus sacred tree which was either type
of the universe, symbol of the entire
creation, or else, and more commonly, a
tree of life" upon the fruits of which the
divinities and their worshipers were wont
to refresh and revivify themselves. Such
was the soma-juice of the Indians, and the
Scandinavian apples of Iduna. The palm,
the fig. and the pine are the earliest types
Of this mystical tree, and the palm is the