Phenix2 (feniks)

[NL. (Linnæus, 1737), der, erect or declined. The trunk is destitute of spines, but is commonly covered with the persistent leaf-bases. The palms grow in close clusters, forming groves. The pinnate leaves are large and terminal, forming a spreading canopy, each consisting of very numerous narrow, rigid, and compre ed leaflets, the lower ones shorter and transformed into spines. The abundant yellow and rather small flowers have three sepals and three petals. The staminate trees bear oblong or ovoid flowers on numerous erect and much-branched spadices between the upper leaves. The pistillate trees bear spherical flowers on similar but often nodding spadices, followed by numerous cylindrical orange, brown, or black berries, those of P. dactyli fer a being the dates of commerce. (For this fruit, see date palm and dates; and for the sugar made from it, see jaggery and goor.) This species is the chief palm of history and of ceremony, having been used as the emblem of triumph from the Egyptian worship of Isis onward. It is the palm of ancient Palestine, and has been for centuries cultivated for miles along the Italian and French Riviera, to supply palm-branches for festivals. White palm-branches are procured by binding the top of the unfolding leaf-bud, thereby blanching the inner leaves. It does not fruit in Italy nor under gla , and requires for succe ful growth an average annual temperature of 80° F. In Africa native huts are made from its leaves, its wood is used for building, its fiber for cloth and ropes, its leafstalks for brooms, crates, etc., its young leaves are eaten, and an intoxicating drink is made from its sap. It reaches a height of 80 and rarely 120 feet, and bears fruit, though in diminishing abundance, for as long as 200 years. The nece ity of artificially fertilizing it first drew attention to the existence of sex in plants. P. sylvestris, the wild date palm of India and Africa, is smaller, reaches a height of 40 feet, bears yellow or reddish berries, and is an important source of sugar and toddy, both prepared from its sap, which it is said can be made to flow from the upper part of its trunk for twenty years. P. pusilla, a dwarf from southern China, and P. reclinata, a decumbent palm from the Cape of Good Hope, also bear sweet edible berries, and are valued, as is P. paludosa, a stout Indian tree, for decorative uses.