lar commodities when thus prepared, it is by no
means a wholesome article of food.

THE DATE.--The date is the fruit of the palm tree so often
mentioned in the Sacred Writings, and is indigenous to Africa and
portions of Asia. The fruit grows in bunches which often weigh from
twenty to twenty-five pounds, and a single tree will bear from one to
three thousand pounds in a season. The date is very sweet and
nutritious. It forms a stable article of diet for the inhabitants of
some parts of Egypt, Arabia, and Persia, and frequently forms the chief
food of their horses, dogs, and camels. The Arabs reduce dried dates to
a meal, and make therefrom a bread, which often constitutes their sole
food on long journeys through the Great Desert. The inhabitants of the
countries where the date tree flourishes, put its various productions to
innumerable uses. From its leaves they make baskets, bags, mats, combs,
and brushes; from its stalks, fences for their gardens; from its fibers,
thread, rope, and rigging; from its sap, a spirituous liquor; from its
fruit, food for man and beast; while the body of the tree furnishes them
with fuel. The prepared fruit is largely imported to this country. That
which is large, smooth, and of a soft reddish yellow tinge, with a
whitish membrane between the flesh and stone, is considered the best.

THE ORANGE.--According to some authors, the far-famed "golden fruit
of the Hesperides," which Hercules stole, was the orange; but it seems
highly improbable that it was known to writers of antiquity. It is
supposed to be indigenous to Central and Eastern Asia. Whatever its
nativity, it has now spread over all the warmer regions of the earth.
The orange tree is very hardy in its own habitat, and is one of the most
prolific of all fruit-bearing trees, a single tree having been known to
produce twenty thousand good oranges in a season. Orange trees attain
great age. There are those in Italy and Spain which are known to have
flourished for six hundred years. Numerous varieties of the orange are
grown, and are imported to our markets from every part of the globe.
Florida oranges are among the best, and when obtained in their
perfection, are the most luscious of all fruits.

THE LEMON.--This fruit is supposed to be a native of the North of
India, although it is grown in nearly all sub-tropical climates. In
general, the fruit is very acid, but in a variety known as the sweet
lemon, or bergamot (said to be a hybrid