"The Dandelion this: A college youth that flashes for a day All gold: anon he doffs his gaudy suit, Touched by the magic hand of Bishop grave, And all at once by commutation strange Becomes a reverend priest: and then how sleek! How full of grace! with silvery wig at first So nicely trimmed, which presently grows bald. But let me tell you, in the pompous globe Which rounds the Dandelion's head is fitly couched Divinity most rare." Boys gather the flower when ripe, and blow away the hall of its silky seed vessels at the crown, to learn the time of day, thus sportively making:-- "Dandelion with globe of down The school-boy's clock in every town." DATE. Dates are the most wholesome and nourishing of all our imported fruits. Children especially appreciate their luscious sweetness, as afforded by an abundant sugar which is easily digested, and which quickly repairs waste of heat and fat. With such a view, likewise, doctors now advise dates for consumptive patients; also because they soothe an irritable chest, and promote expectoration; whilst, furthermore, they prevent costiveness. Dates are the fruit of the Date palm (_Phoenix dactylifera_), or, Tree of Life. In old English Bibles of the sixteenth century, the name Date-tree is constantly given to the Palm, and the fruit thereof was the first found by the Israelites when wandering in the Wilderness. Oriental writers have attributed to this tree a certain semi-human consciousness. The name _Phoenix_ was [153] bestowed on the Date palm because a young shoot springs always from the withered stump of an old decayed Date tree, taking the place of the dead parent; and the specific term _Dactylifera_ refers to a fancied resemblance between clusters of the fruit and the human fingers. The Date palm is remarkably fond of water, and will not thrive unless growing near it, so that the Arabs say: "In order to flourish, its feet must be in the water, and its head in the fire (of a hot sun)." Travellers across the desert, when seeing palm Dates in the horizon, know that wells of water will be found near at hand: at the same time they sustain themselves with Date jam. In some parts of the East this Date palm is thought been the tree of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. It is mystically represented as the tree of life in the sculptured foliage of early French churches, and on the primitive mosaics found in the apses of Roman Basilicas. Branches of this tree are carried about in Catholic countries on Palm Sunday. Formerly Dates were sent to England and elsewhere packed in mats from the Persian gulf; but now they arrive in clean boxes, neatly laid, and free from duty; so that a wholesome, sustaining, and palatable meal may be had for one penny, if they are eaten with bread. The Egyptian Dates are superior, being succulent and luscious when new, but apt to become somewhat hard after Christmas.