Ph[oe]nix Dactylifera
The date palm, very extensively grown for
its fruit, which affords the principal food for a large portion of
the inhabitants of Africa, Asia, and southern Europe, and likewise
of the various domestic animals--dogs, horses, and camels being
alike partial to it. The tree
attains to a great age, and bears
annually for two hundred years. The huts of the poorer classes are
constructed of the leaves: the fiber surrounding the bases of
their stalks is used for making ropes and coarse cloth; the stalks
are used for the manufacture of baskets, brooms, crates, walking
sticks, etc., and the wood for building substantial houses; the
heart of young leaves is eaten as a vegetable; the sap affords an
intoxicating beverage. It may be further mentioned that the date
was, probably, the palm which supplied the "branches of palm
trees" mentioned by St. John (xii, 13) as having been carried by
the people who went to meet Christ on his triumphal entry into
Jerusalem, and from which Palm Sunday takes its name.
Previous: Persea Gratissima
Next: Phormium Tenax
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