Abstract

The March 1919 number of the Journal of Heredity starts with a very interesting article entitled "The Founders of the art of Breeding." There appears to be evidence, to show, that, the uni- sexuality of the date palm was known to the Assyrians and the Babylonians, long before the beginning of the Christian era. Kazwini, an arabic writer, who flourished in the B. C's, says of the date, "it is created out of the same substances as Adam, and is the only tree that is artificially fertilised." The first part of the above quotation refers to the varied uses of this tree-over 360 different uses are claimed for the tree and the second part has an obivious allusion to the methods of cross-polliniation which was practised on the tree even in those early years. The lessons taught by the date palm seem, however, to have been subsequently forgotten, till, the exis- tence of sex in plants was subsequently rediscovered by Camararius in 1694, and the subsequent events are modern history and familiar to every breeder.

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