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.