In Egypt there are about fifty varieties of date-palm the chief kinds in Kharga Oasis being the Saîdi, Tamar, Fâlig, and Hamrâwi. The Saîdi dates of the oases are generally considered to be superior in flavour to almost any other Egyptian variety, and have in consequence a ready sale in the Nile Valley. The other varieties are not exported to any great extent, except, perhaps, the Fâlig; the Tamar, while producing a heavier crop than the other kinds, yields fruit of comparatively poor quality, which is on that account almost entirely used for home consumption. The Hamrâwi trees are very limited in number, but produce fruit of large size and excellent flavour; Hamrâwi dates are, however, I believe, regarded as having bad keeping properties. Dates are met with of almost every variety of colour except pure black or white. All the different kinds ripen at or about the same time—in the early part of September. A tree will bear from eight to ten bunches, each carrying from 12 to 20 pounds of fruit, so that in full bearing it will yield from 100 to 200 pounds of dates annually. The fruit exported from the oases, being entirely disposed of in the native markets of the Nile Valley, is packed and sewn up without any special care in palm-leaf baskets. For local use small quantities of selected fruit are frequently preserved in a moist state in earthenware jars. Date-stones cast on the ground and accidentally buried under an inch or two of soil will germinate freely, but the resulting plants are of little use. Not one in a hundred will turn out of the same variety as its parent, so that plants raised from seed must in the great majority of cases be regarded as bastards, of no value as fruit-producers. In Kharga all new trees are raised from slipped plants—that is to say, from the young shoots which spring up at the butts of the parent trees. These are detached and planted out separately on new ground. The greatest care has to be taken to protect them from hot winds and sandstorms, and they must be watered daily for a number of weeks after being planted. Growth is very slow for the first two years, and even under the most favourable conditions the trees will not commence to bear fruit for five or six years. Date-palms come into full bearing when from twenty to twenty-five years old, and may live to a century or more. Every year the lowest ring of branches is cut off, so that the age of a tree can be fairly accurately ascertained by counting the rings of notches on the stem. The wild, unkempt, weather-beaten trees occasionally met with in outlying, uninhabited portions of the oasis have a very different appearance from the trim, erect palms of the cultivated areas.