DATE PALM (Phenix), a genus of palms, the most important species of which is the common DATE PALM, the palm tree of Scripture (Ph. dactylifera), a native of the north ern half of Africa, the s.w. of Asia, and some parts of India, and which has also been brought into cultivation in the s. of Europe, and might certainly be introduced with advantage into the s. of the United States, and many warm parts of America and Aus tralia. 'The stem, which is straight and simple, reaches a height of 30 to GO ft., and bears a head of 40 to 80 glaucous pinnated leaves, of 8 to 10 ft. long, with lanceolate acuminated leaflets, very much closed up, and a number of branching spadices, each of which on the female tree bears in general ISO to 200 fruits (dates, dactyls). A bunch of dates weighs 20 or 25 pounds. This is one of the most important and useful of all the palms, and is indispensable to millions of the human race, on account of the supply of food which it affords them. In Egypt and the other countries on the n. coast,of Africa, in Persia, and in Arabia. dates form the principal food, and date palms the principal wealth, of the people. The fleshy part of the fruit contains 58 per cent of sugar, accom panied by pectin, gum, etc. The main ingredient, therefore, in a dietetic point of view, is the stigar. The fruit is eaten either fresh or dried, and in the latter state becomes an article of commerce. Cakes of dates pounded and kneaded together, and so solid as to be cut with a hatchet, are the store of food provided for African caravans on their jour ney through the Sahara. A liquor resembling wine is made from dates by fermenta tion, and also a kind of vinegar. In Persia, an ardent spirit is distilled from dates. The soft pith at the summit of the palm stem, along with the young*., leaves not yet unfolded, are eaten under the name of pains cabbage, and the undeveloped panicles of flowers also form an article of food to the Persians and Arabs. The liquor called palm wine is prepared by fermentation from the sap of the palm, the top being cut off, and a hollow scooped out, in which the sap collects. Three. or four quarts are obtained daily from a single palm for ten days or a fortnight. The quantity afterwards diminishes,
till the tree becomes quite dried up. Many of the inhabitants of North Africa use the roasted date stones or seeds as a substitute for coffee, for which purpose the seeds of the Plicenix reclinata are also employed in the s. of Africa. The seeds or stones of dates are in many places ground for the sake of the oil which is afterwards obtained from them by expression, and the remaining paste or cake is given as food to cattle. From leaf-stalks of the common D.. P., all 'kinds of basket and wicker work are also made, and walking-sticks, fans, etc. ThO leaves themselves. are made into bags, mats, etc.; the fibers of the web-like integuments at the base of their stalks into cordage. The wood is used for building, fences, etc.—The TODDY PALM of the n. of India, or wild D. P. (Ph. sylvestris), so nearly resembles this species, that it is doubtful if it is dis tinct. In some places, the trees present a curiously distorted and zigzag appearance, from the practice of yearly tapping the alternate sides for the sap or toddy. The inci sion is just below the crown, and slopes upwards and inwards; a vessel is hung below the wound, and the juice conducted into it by a little piece of bamboo. It forms a grateful and wholesome beverage; readily also fermenting into palm wine, and by dis tillation yielding arrack, (q.v.); whilst, if boiled down without being allowed to fer ment, it yields the saccharine syrup called jaggery, from four pounds of which one pound of sugar is obtained, a single tree producing about seven or eight pounds of sugar annually. The operation of tapping for toddy spoils the fruit of the tree, which is small and much inferior to the African date. It is, however, eaten.—Another spe cies. Ph. paludosa, the most gregarious of Indian palms, growing only six or eight ft. high, covers the whole landscape of the Sunderbunds with the liveliest verdure. Ph. acaulis, Ph. farinifera, and P. spinosa, are three other closely allied species; the first grows in the driest soils in the damp valleys of the Himalaya to 3,000 ft. above the sea. All three are dwarf species.