, 1900-11-13
PRINCE OF PLANTS.
THE PALM is A HOLY TREE TO
MANY RACES.
Date-Palm OF Gases Gives Refreshing
Shade. Fruits and = Won the
Affection Of the Natives and Admira-
tion OF Travellers. v

The palm Is a holy tree to many
races. To the Mohammedans the
date-palm is sacred as the fruit which
Adam was permitted to bring with
him out of Eden: by the Christian all
palms are revered as having furnished
the leaves which were strewn IN the
path of the Messiah. The date-palm,
well known as the Prince of Palms"
Is regarded as the prince of all plants.
A single stem, straight and slender.
rises to a height Of sixty, or even sew
enty-five feet, perfectly bare. unbroken
by a single branch or leaf. At the top
only an immense plume of ~feathery
leaves, growing in a bunch, forms. so
to speak, the capital of the vegetable
column. This tuft may be from nine
TO twelve feet long. and at the base
OF Its long leaves appear the fruits of
the palm tree. Originally a native Of
Arabia and Northern Africa. the date
palm Is pre-eminently the tree of the
desert, where it grows in nearly every
oasis. and by its refreshing shade. its
fruits. its milk, and its general use
fulness, has won the affection of the
natives and the admiration of all trav-
elers. The date is indeed the true
friend OF the desert; there alone it
ripens its fruit, n without it the Sa-
hara would be uninhabitable. Arabic
poetry loves to praise it as a living
being created by God on the sixth day
Of creation-at the same time with
man-to convey IN Idea OF the condi-
tions which 1t thrives. The Saharans
use a bold but expressive figure: The
king of the oasis" they say, must
plunge his feet in the water and his
head in the FIRE of heaven" Dates can
endure dry and short cold as low as
10 degrees above zero, and a heat of
122 degrees. The radiating sand OF
the desert cools off more readily than
the air, and preserves at a certain
depth a degree of freshness which in
Is rare in the Sahara: it falls only in
winter. and woos the withered plants
to a new life. Sometimes it rains in
torrents, but these gusts are of short
duration. At Fongourt and Onargla
whole years pass without a drop OF
rain. Hence the very natural admira-
ton and affection which is evinced by
the Arab for this tree, with its sweet
fruits, which grows in the sand. fed
by brackish waters. that would be
fatal to almost all other plants-which
remains f%iourishing and green when
all around is burnt up by the fierce
rays Of the pitiless sun-which resists
the winds that may bend its plant
plume to the ground. but cannot break
Its strong stem. composed OF inter-
laced fbers, nor tear 1t from the soll,
to which it clings by a thousand roots
which strike deep and defy the tenn
pest. 1t has well been said that a
single tree has peopled the desert, and
upon 1t alone is based a civilization.
rudimentary. compared to Jul own.
but far advanced beyond the merely
natural state. Its fruits are in de-
mand throughout the whole world,
SUFFICIENT to procure all necessary i'm
ports. and not only make the Arabs
independent but afluent. The tufts
Of palm-trees form a kind of vast par
asol, under which the air can circu-
late, but the sun is unable to pierce
the dense canopy Of leaves.