Date or Date-Palm (Phœnix dactylifera), a tree sixty to eighty feet high, with large pinnate leaves, cultivated in immense quantities in north Africa, western Asia and southern Europe. The stem is covered with leaf scars, and the flowers each have three sepals and three petals. The wood of the stem is used in building; huts are built of its leaves; the petioles are made into baskets and the fibre surrounding their bases into ropes and coarse cloth; the young leaf-bud or “cabbage” is sometimes eaten as a vegetable, or, if tapped, it yields a sugary sap which may be fermented; and even the seeds are ground into meal for camels. In central Arabia and some parts of north Africa the fruit forms the staple food of the inhabitants, camels, horses, and dogs. It is the chief source of wealth in Arabia. It was very anciently cultivated in Egypt and Babylonia and is the palm of the Bible.
SCENES IN THE PRODUCTION OF THE COFFEE BERRY
| THE COFFEE PLANT IN FLOWER | FROM FLOWER TO RIPE “CHERRIES” |
METHOD OF DRYING COFFEE ON WOODEN TRAYS IN THE OPEN AIR, AS STILL PRACTICED IN ARABIA AND OTHER ORIENTAL COUNTRIES
WOMEN OF JAVA HULLING COFFEE
The “cherries” when gathered contain two seeds, or coffee beans. The coverings are removed from the seeds by “hulling.”