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128 ERUITS IN THEIR SEASON.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
¦ - - A » Vi. Data. Respecting Dates. Th...
water used in irrigation , though , it is obtained frorn the torrents of the hills .
Instead of being formed like exogenous timber , of regularly disposed bundles of woody fibres , radiating from the centre through a
cellular tissue of medullary matter , the substance of the palm-trunk is composed of longitudinal woody fibres scattered irregularly
through _, a mass of pith , and is hardly to be called timber . The ends of the fibres are too hard , and the medullary matter too soft ,
to admit of its being held together by means of glue , and the same causes prevent the surface from taking polish , so that the only way
to preserve it is by the use of varnish . The trunk , however , makes very good posts and beams for building purposes , and is also
employed for fuel . The leaves are made into baskets and brushes , their mid-ribs being used to form garden fences , cages , & c , as a
substitute for wicker ; while the _fiower-sjDathe and inner , bark-like fibres are converted into strong cordageropes , and matting .
Un-, like the generality of the palm tribe—which rejoice in the most fervent tropical heat , and scarcely spread beyond where this is felt
—the date delights in a milder climate , and may be considered an intermediate between the fruits of the torrid and of the temperate
' zones ; by a gracious law of Providence its habitat being chiefly where little else can grow . It will not flourish in southern
latitudes , but attains perfection in the northern parts of Africa , and forms a border along the margin of the Great Desert , so abounding
where so little other vegetation is seen as to give a name to the region , called from it Biledulgerid , or the Land of Dates . The fruit
cannot ripen beyond a line drawn from Spain to Syria , about 29 or 80 deg . north latitude , though the tree will vegetate a few degrees
further north ; it _abotmds in the gardens of Naples and Sicily ; is found in ValenciaGenoa , and the island of Elba ; and even at
, Toulon two _Ane specimens are seen growing in the botanical gardens , in the open air . It has been introduced too into Bordighiera ,
in the south of France , for the sake of the leaves , which are made use of in spring by the Christians , in Palm Sunday ceremonials ,
aiid in autumn by the Jews , during their celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles ; and near Elete , in _Sjmm , is a complete wood of no
less than 200 , 000 date-palms , the leaves of which are bound _\\ p in mats till they are bleached almost white , and then gathered and
sent in ship-loads to Italy , for Palm Sunday processions , and to Madrid , where a house without its blessed palm-branch at Easter
would seem as incomplete as an English dwelling without a sprig of holly at Christmas .
An attempt once made to cultivate the date-palm in Jamaica , _jDroved a failurebut it grows in Indiathough it does not ripen
, , fruit well in that latitude , and is , therefore , valued chiefly for the sake of the saj ) , which is manufactured into that harmless-seeming ,
but mystic r / oor , which , as the chosen offering of Kali , holds so
prominent a place in tho fearful ceremonies of Tliuggism . The
128 Eruits In Their Season.
128 ERUITS IN THEIR SEASON .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1861, page 128, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041861/page/56/
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