The Mussulmen make out a complete case of piety and superstition in the palm, and pretend that they are made for the palm, and the palm is made for them, alleging that, as soon as the Turks conquered Constantinople, the palm raised its graceful flowing head over the domes of the former infidel city, whilst when the Moors evacuated Spain, the palm pined away, and died.  “God,” adds the pious Mussulman, “has given us the palm; amongst the Christians, it will not grow!” But the poetry of the palm is an inseparable appendage in the North African landscape, and even town scenery.  The Moor and the Arab, whose minds are naturally imbued with the great images of nature, so glowingly represented also in the sacred leaves of the Koran, cannot imagine a mosque or the dome-roof of a hermitage, without the dark leaf of the palm overshadowing it; but the serenest, loveliest object on the face of the landscape is the lonely palm, either thrown by chance on the brow of some savage hill or planted by design to adorn some sacred spot of mother-earth.

I must still give some other information which I have omitted respecting this extraordinary tree.  And, after this, I further refer the reader to a Tour in the Jereed of which some details are given in succeeding pages.  A palm-grove is really a beautiful object, and requires scarcely less attention than a vineyard.  The trees are generally planted in a quincunx, or at times without any regular order; but at distances from each other of four or five yards.  The situation selected is mostly on the banks of some stream or rivulet, running from the neighbouring hills, and the more abundant the supply of water, the healthier the plants and the finer the fruit.  For this tree, which loves a warm climate, and a sandy soil, is yet wonderfully improved by frequent irrigation, and, singularly, the quality of the water appears of little consequence, being salt or sweet, or impregnated with nitre, as in the Jereed.

Irrigation is performed in the spring, and through the whole summer.  The water is drawn by small channels from the stream to each individual tree, around the stalk and root of which a little basin is made and fenced round with clay, so that the water, when received, is detained there until it soaks into the earth. (All irrigation is, indeed, effected in this way.) As to the abundance of the plantations, the fruit of one plantation alone producing fifteen hundred camels’ loads of dates, or four thousand five hundred quintals, three quintals to the load, is not unfrequently sold for one thousand dollars.  Besides the Jereed, Tafilett, in Morocco, is a great date-country.  Mr. Jackson says, “We found the country covered with most magnificent plantations, and extensive forests of the lofty date, exhibiting the most elegant and picturesque appearance that nature on a plain surface can present to the admiring eye.  In these forests, there is no underwood, so that a horseman may gallop through them without impediment.”