in astronomy. See there, no 206.

Great Palm, or Date-tree; a genus of plants belonging to the order of palmæ. There is only one species, viz. the daëtiferia, or common date-tree, a native of Africa and the eastern countries, where it grows to 50, 60, and 100 feet high. The trunk is round, upright, and studded with protuberances, which are the vestiges of the decayed leaves. From the top issues forth a cluster of leaves or branches eight or nine feet long, extending all round like an umbrella, and bending a little towards the earth. The bottom part produces a number of stalks like those of the middle, but seldom shooting so high as four or five feet. These stalks, says Adanson, diffuse the tree very considerably; so that, wherever it naturally grows in forests, it is extremely difficult to open a passage through its prickly leaves. The flowers are male and female upon different roots. The dates, which are the produce of the female plant, grow in large spiral clusters, each being about the bigness and shape of a middling olive, and containing within the pulp, which is of a yellow colour and agreeable taste, a round, strong, hard nut or stone, of an ash-colour, marked with a deep furrow, running lengthwise. Of the fresh dates and sugar, says Hasselquist, the Egyptians make a conserve, which has a very pleasant taste. The kernels or stones, though hard as horn, they grind in hand-mills, and, in default of better food, give to their camels. Of the leaves are made baskets, or bags, which are much used in Turkey on journeys, and for other economical uses. In Egypt they are used as fly-flaps, for driving away the numerous insects which prove so troublesome in hot countries; and Rauwold relates, that of the fibres of the leaves and covering of the fruit are spun ropes, of pretty large dimensions and considerable strength. The hard boughs are used for fences and other purposes of husbandry; the principal item for building; in fine, no part of this curious tree wants its use. The fruit, before it is ripe, is somewhat astringent; but when thoroughly mature, is of the nature of the fig. The Senegal dates are shorter than those of Egypt, but much thicker in the pulp, which is said to have a fugary agreeable taste, superior to that of the best dates of the Levant.

These plants may be easily produced from the seeds taken out of the fruit, (provided they are fresh), which should be sown in pots filled with light rich earth, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed of tanners bark, which should be kept in a moderate temperature of heat, and the earth frequently refreshed with water. When the plants are come up to a proper size, they should be each planted into a separate small pot, filled with the same light earth, and plunged into a hot-bed again, observing to refresh them with water, as also to let them have air in proportion to the warmth of the season and the bed in which they are placed. During the summer-time they should remain in the same hot-bed; but in the beginning of August, you should let them have a great share of air to harden them against the approach of winter; for if they are too much forced, they will be so tender as not to be preserved through the winter without much difficulty, especially if you have not the conveniency of a bark-stove to keep them in. The soil in which these plants should be placed, must be composed in the following manner, viz. half of light fresh earth taken from a pasture-ground, the other half sea-sand and rotten dung or tanners bark in equal proportion; these should be carefully mixed, and laid in a heap three or four months at least before it is used, but should be often turned over to prevent the growth of weeds, and to sweeten the earth.

ornithology, a bird famous among the ancients, but generally looked upon by the moderns as fabulous. The ancients speak of this bird as single, or the only one of its kind; they describe it as of the size of an eagle; its head finely crested with a beautiful plumage, its neck covered with feathers of a gold colour, and the rest of its body purple, only the tail white, and the eyes sparkling like stars: they hold, that it lives 500 or 600 years in the wilderness; that when thus advanced in age, it builds itself a pile of sweet wood and aromatic gums, and fires it with the wafting of its wings, and thus burns itself; and that from its ashes arises a worm, which in time grows up to be a phoenix. Hence the Phœnicians gave the name of phœnix to the palm-tree; because when burnt down to the root, it rises again fairer than ever.