Published March 1827, by John Murray, London.
Engraved from a Drawing taken on the spot by H. Beechey.
REMAINS OF A CHRISTIAN CHURCH AT PTOLEMETA.
Published March 1827, by John Murray, London.
CHAPTER XII.
Remarks on the Soil of Bengazi and the Country in its Neighbourhood — Distinction of Sex in the Palm-tree, &c., noticed by the Ancients and by Mahometan Writers — Persian Anecdote of a Love-sick Date-tree — Remarks of Shaw on the Propagation and Treatment of the Palm — Arab Mode of cultivating the Sandy Tracts in the Neighbourhood of Bengazi — Journey to Carcora — Completion of the Coast-line from that Place to Bengazi — Return to Bengazi, and Departure for Teuchira and Ptolemeta — Description of the Country between Bengazi and these Places — Remains observable in this Track — Correspondence of the Tower called Gusser el Towēl with that of Cafez, mentioned by Edrisi — Probable Site of Adriane — Arrival at Birsis — Remains in its neighbourhood, at Mably (or Mabny), considered as those of Neapolis — Hospitality of the Arabs of Birsis — Remains of Teuchira — Position of the City — Quarries without the Walls covered with Greek Inscriptions — Teuchira a Town of Barca — Walls of the City repaired by Justinian — No Port observable at Teuchira — Mistake of Bruce in confounding Teuchira with Ptolemeta — Good Supply of fresh Water at Teuchira — The excavated Tombs of the ancient City used as Dwelling-houses by the Arabs of the Neighbourhood — Indisposition of our Chaous (or Janissary) — Route from Teuchira to Ptolemeta — Remains at Ptolemeta — Port and Cothon of the ancient City — Other Remains observable there — Ptolemaic Inscriptions — Picturesque Ravines in the Neighbourhood of Ptolemeta — Position of the City — Remains of Bridges observed there — Advantages of its Site — Extreme Drought at Ptolemeta, recorded by Procopius — Reparation of the Aqueducts and Cisterns by the Emperor Justinian — Existing Remains of an extensive Cistern at Ptolemeta, probably among those alluded to by Procopius — State of the Town, its Solitude and Desolation — Luxuriant Vegetation which encumbered its Streets when the Place was first visited by our Party — Change of Scene on returning to it in Summer-time.
The soil of the Hesperides does not now produce that variety of fruit which we find that it did in the days of its prosperity[1]; but the palm and the fig-tree still flourish there in great abundance, and it is merely from the want of attention, and not from any actual change in the soil itself, that it does not afford the same variety as formerly[2].
The fruit of the palm-tree forms too essential a part of Arab food to allow of the necessary precautions being neglected for insuring the growth and the ripening of dates; but the fig-trees are for the most part wild, and produce only, a diminutive fruit, which never comes to any perfection. It is a well-known fact in natural history, that “these trees are male and female, and that the fruit will be dry and insipid without a previous communication with the male.” This peculiarity was discovered at a very early period, and has been noticed by writers of various ages with much perspicuity and detail. There appears to have been but little variation at any time in the mode of performing these operations; and the manner in which the palm-tree is described, by Pliny, to have been impregnated, is the same with that which prevails in the present day.
A part of the blossom from the male tree is either attached to the fruit of the female; or the powder from the blossoms of the male is shaken over those which the female produces. The first of these methods is practised in Barbary, (one male being sufficient, as Shaw has observed, to impregnate four or five hundred female); and the latter is common in Egypt, where the number of male trees is greater[3]. Both these methods are described by Pliny, (Hist. Nat. lib. xiii.) and the whole account which is there given of the palm-tree and its several varieties is extremely accurate and interesting. The attachment of this tree to a sandy and nitrous soil, and its partiality at the same time for water; its inability to thrive in any other than a dry and hot climate, its peculiar foliage and bark, and the decided distinction of sex which is observable in it, are all mentioned in detail by the Roman naturalist.